Resolving forces

Physics and electronics discussion, revision, exam and homework help.

This thread is sponsored by:
Announcements Posted on
Important: please read these guidelines before posting about exams on The Student Room 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. Vadevalor's Avatar
    • Full Member
    • Posts: 112
    Resolving forces
    Here's 2 ways of resolving forces,well ,if the 2nd one is correct,then the other one is wrong? I'm asking this out of curiosity since there is only one answer given
    Attached Thumbnails
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	ImageUploadedByStudent Room1347296244.785540.jpg 
Views:	31 
Size:	197.2 KB 
ID:	173066  
  2. Stonebridge's Avatar
    • Community Assistant
    • TSR Demigod
    Re: Resolving forces
    I assume you mean "adding" forces, not "resolving".
    Also, if the force marked "f" is meant to be the sum of W and N, it's pointing in the wrong direction in both cases.

    The resultant of two vectors, end to end, is the vector that joins the tail of the first vector to the head of the second.

    In this diagram, the sum of AB plus CD is AD
    not DA.

    The 2nd diagram below is the correct case.
    Your diagrams both show the incorrect 1st case.



    Both diagrams are mathematical constructions made by shifting one of the forces from the original situation where the two forces would be acting at the same point.
    Last edited by Stonebridge; 10-09-2012 at 18:51.
  3. teachercol's Avatar
    • Vengeful, Imperial Overlord of The Student Room
    • Location: Scarborough
    • Posts: 3,911
    Re: Resolving forces
    A lot of students mix up the diagram showing three vectors in equilibrium with the diagram showing the resultant of two vectors.
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.