

I don’t think it can get as low as 100N, for that you would have to pull completely upwards. The shadow in the image implies a ceiling, so ~112N if we take 90° as the max angle. The 150N would be the only case with a completely downward force, if you pull at another angle the resulting force vector will be angled as well.











It’s an acronym, tho. From the Wiktionary page for ‘acronym’:
So it seems like a bunch of prescriptivists just made up this distinction, included it in some style guides, and then tried to proscribe the other meaning or something.