The free body diagram for the block of mass M consists of four forces:
• the block's weight, Mg, pointing downward
• the normal force of the table pushing upward on the block, also with magnitude Mg
• kinetic friction with magnitude µMg = 0.2 Mg, pointing to the left
• tension of magnitude T pulling the block to the right
For the block of mass m, there are only two forces:
• its weight, mg, pulling downward
• tension T pulling upward
The m-block will pull the M-block toward the edge of the table, so we take the right direction to be positive for the M-block, and downward to be positive for the m-block.
Newton's second law gives us
T - 0.2Mg = Ma
mg - T = ma
where a is the acceleration of either block/the system. Adding these equations together eliminates T and we can solve for a :
mg - 0.2 Mg = (m + M) a
a = (m - 0.2M) / (m + M) g
a = 1.96 m/s²
Then the tension in the string is
T = m (g - a)
T = 78.4 N
