An ant is moving on a plane horizontal surface. The number of degrees of freedom of the ant will be

Options

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 6

Answer

To determine the number of degrees of freedom of an ant moving on a horizontal surface, we can follow these steps:

### Step 1: Understand Degrees of Freedom
Degrees of freedom refer to the number of independent ways in which a system can move. For a particle, it indicates how many dimensions it can move in.

### Step 2: Identify the Surface
The ant is moving on a horizontal plane. This means we are considering a two-dimensional surface (the plane).

### Step 3: Define the Coordinate System
We can define a coordinate system with:
- The x-axis (horizontal direction)
- The y-axis (vertical direction on the plane)

Since the ant is on a horizontal surface, we can ignore any movement in the vertical (z-axis) direction.

### Step 4: Determine Movement Directions
On this horizontal surface, the ant can move:
- In the x-direction (left or right)
- In the y-direction (forward or backward)

### Step 5: Count the Degrees of Freedom
Since the ant can move in two independent directions (x and y), we conclude that the number of degrees of freedom for the ant is 2.

### Final Answer
The number of degrees of freedom of the ant will be **2**.

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