A 12kg bucket is lowered vertically by a rope in which there is 163 newtons of t

Question

A 12kg bucket is lowered vertically by a rope in which there is 163 newtons of tension at any given instant. What is the acceleration of the bucket? Is it up or down?

I solve the problem and I get acceleration of 3.8m/s2 up. I just don't understand this conceptually. How is the bucket still being lowered? Is it because while the bucket is accelerating up, there is a larger acceleration downward of 9.8m/s2? That doesn't really make sense as we already factored gravity into getting the response of 3.8 downward.

Can someone explain the logic behind this please?

Explanation / Answer

t would appear that the descending bucket is being decelerated as the net force acting on it is 45.4N upwards.
Weight = (12kg x 9.8N/kg) = 117.6N downwards
Tension applies an upward force of 163N to bucket ..
Net (resultant) force on bucket = 163 - 117.6 = 45.4N upwards

Deceleration = Res.force / mass ..
.. a = 45.4N / 12.0Kg .. .. a = (-) 3.78 m/s² upwards.

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