Two people each pull a rope that are connected to the front of a sled. Billy Bob pulls with a force of 450-N at an angle of 70° from the horizontal. Peggy Sue pulls from the other side of the sled with a force of 670-N at an angle of 50° from the horizontal. Determine the net force on the sled. Round to the nearest whole number.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Use trigonometry to divide the vectors into horizontal and vertical components, and then add them up.

cwrw238 · Answer

horizontal component of Biily bobs force = 450 cos 70 N
  ....               ..              Peggy Sue force   = 700 cos 50

they opppse each other so net force is the difference of the above

cwrw238 · Answer

peggys force = 449.95 and billy's = 153.91

subtracting gives the net force - the sled will move in peggy sues direction

cwrw238 · Answer

ok?

anonymous · Answer

yes
so no need of vertical components right?

anonymous · Answer

@cwrw238 yes so no need of vertical components right?

cwrw238 · Answer

right

cwrw238 · Answer

the vertical component is balanced by weight of the sled

anonymous · Answer

@cwrw238 - It depends really what the question's asking...I interpreted net force as the net applied force, since there was no mention of gravity.

anonymous · Answer

(nor the weight of the sled)

cwrw238 · Answer

yes - !  see what you mean - i assumed that sled is pretty heavy and the net movement would be horizontal