"A force is acting on a box until t = 10 seconds". Is the force still acting on the box at t = 10 seconds?

I have a difficulty to digest any sentence using the word until, especially when it is used to express something related to a point of time or space.

In the physics examination, I have a sentence as follows

A force is acting on a box until t = 10 seconds.

What can we infer from that statement whether or not the force is still acting at t = 10 seconds?

Solution 1:

As ShreevatsaR says, the question is meaningless in the context of physics. So here are other examples with until where the time boundary can be interpreted:

To my ear, I was at the office until 5 PM includes the boundary -- it implies I was at the office at 5 PM. I won't see you until I get home, on the other hand, seems to me to allow situations in which I'll see you as I get home, thus excluding the boundary. Reasonable people may disagree.

Depending on the context, until now can include or exclude now:

Expanding the company will change what until now has been a friendly culture.
Until now, scientists didn't know why gravity matters.

Until today and until tomorrow both change their situation at some point during the boundary condition/day.

Summary: until has no specific effect on the boundary. The boundary determination, in the rare cases where it has a meaning, is a semantic and contextual issue of the sentence, rather than of until.

Solution 2:

I think with "until" there is some implication that there is a change in the situation at t = 10. This may or not be a change in whether the force is still acting. I think additional info to remove ambiguity will be needed in the next phrase sentence.