Uh oh! Something isn’t right.
There’s more than one way to load these boxes! Learn more about balance.
Yay! We can deliver this set of equipment to the explorers.
You placed the boxes so that the lighter 20 kg ones balanced the weight of the heavier 30 kg box. I heard from the team. A bear got into their campsite, ate all of their food, and destroyed their tent! Let’s bring them some new supplies.
In this example, the term "balance" means making the trailer stable by placing the boxes at the correct distance on each side of the center point so the trailer does not lean backward or forward.
The center point is the center of the trailer. It is the trailer's wheel.
When the trailer is empty, it is perfectly balanced around the center point.
Multiply the object's weight times its distance from the center. This is represented by W x D where:
The trailer is balanced when WxD on one side of the center point equals WxD on the other side so:
If you have two boxes that are the same weight, you can place them the same distance from the center and the trailer will be balanced.
Think about a seesaw on a playground. If you and I weigh about the same, we can both sit at the very ends of the seesaw board. The seesaw will be perfectly balanced.
But if one of us is heavier, we can't both sit at the same place on the seesaw to keep it balanced. The heavier person has to move closer to the center.
Therefore, when balancing two objects of different weights, the heavier object needs to be closer to the center and the lighter object farther away.