What do we call forces that cancel each other due to equal magnitude and opposite direction?

• A. Unbalanced forces
• B. Balanced forces
• C. Net force
• D. Resultant forces

Answer: (B)

When forces acting on an object are equal in size and opposite in direction, they cancel each other out. The total effect is zero net force, so the object's motion doesn’t change. These are called balanced forces. If the object is at rest, it stays at rest; if it’s moving, it keeps moving with the same speed and in the same direction. For example, a book resting on a table has gravity pulling down and the table’s normal force pushing up with the same strength, so there’s no acceleration. If forces didn’t balance, there’d be a net force and the object would accelerate. Net force describes the overall force after adding all forces; when forces balance, the net force is zero. Resultant force is another term for the overall effect of the forces, which would be zero in this balanced situation, but the usual description for canceling forces is balanced forces.