Forces in Equlibrium
AQA Physics Year 1 and AS - Pg. 113 / Q4:
Currently revising for mocks and for the life of me i cant figure out this question.
A small toy of weight 2.8N is suspended from a horizontal beam by means of two cords that are attached to the same point on the toy. One cord makes an angle of 60 degrees to the beam and the other makes an angle of 40 degrees to the vertical. Calculate the tension of each cord.
Please help
Currently revising for mocks and for the life of me i cant figure out this question.
A small toy of weight 2.8N is suspended from a horizontal beam by means of two cords that are attached to the same point on the toy. One cord makes an angle of 60 degrees to the beam and the other makes an angle of 40 degrees to the vertical. Calculate the tension of each cord.
Please help
Original post by AyyJackk
heres the question from the book.
The forces acting on the toy are its weight (shown) and the tensions in the cords (not shown, but think of them as arrows starting at the toy and pointing along the cords). Call these tensions T1 and T2.
The best way to start is to draw a new diagram made out of these forces. Arrange them in the way that you would when adding any vectors - do one, then another starting from where the first one finished, and then the third, starting from where the second one finished. You know that the toy is in equilibrium, so the resultant force acting on it is zero. This means that your diagram will be a triangle - it must end where it begins so that the sum of the three forces is zero.
You should also be able to fill in the three angles of your new triangle. There won't be any right angles in it, but you should be able to use the sine rule to work out the lengths of the missing sides (i.e. the two forces you need to find).
It's fairly unusual to have a question like this that requires the sine rule, but not unknown. This is about as complicated as the maths in the first year of the Physics A Level gets.
If you're not a fan of the sine rule, I think you should be able to do this by writing two equations, one for horizontal forces, one for vertical.
Still a bit messy, but should work.
Still a bit messy, but should work.
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