A physic question....kind of hard?

Question

Three blocks are in contact with each other on a frictionless surface, horizontal surface. A horizontal Force F is applied to block 1, or m1. M1 is 2.00kg,m2 is3.00kg,m3 is 4.00kg anf the Force is 18.0N.
(a)Find aceeleration of blocks
(b)find the resultant force on each of the blocks
(c)the magnitudes of the contact force between the blocks

Any help would be great I am in the military and had reserve duty so I miss a few classes and need to get caught up

Blocks are line horizontally

Answer 1

This does require a careful understanding of the principles of Newtonian physics, even though mathematically it's not difficult. Before we bother with the numbers, we'll begin with a force F applied horizontally on blocks of mass m1, m2, m3 in contact so that they all move together. The acceleration a of the blocks is simply

a = F/(m1+m2+m3)

because we know that F = ma, by Newton's 2nd law.

Now, let's look at blocks m2 and m3. The force on that has to satisfy:

a = F2/(m2+m3)

because obviously they are accelerating at the same rate! Thus, we see that

F2 = F(m2+m3)/(m1+m2+m3)

Likewise, for the last block, we figure that

F3 = F(m3)/(m1+m2+m3)

Finally, because of Newton's 3rd law, any force being applied upon on face by another face has its equal and opposite force on the other face. So, plugging in the numbers, we have the answers

a) 18N/9kg = 2 m/s²
b) 14N upon block m2, 8N upon block m3
c) same as b), but in the other direction

Answer 2

Need some more information. Are the blocks stacked on top of each other? Are they in a line horizontally? Is the force applied to the line of blocks like pushing a stick from one end, or sideways?

Is it like this:
F --> [m1][m2][m3]

Or is it like this?
..........F
...|...... |.....|
...v......v.....v
[m1][m2][m3]