Two small pegs are 8 cm apart on the same horizontal line. An inextensible string of length 16 cm has equal masses fastened at either end and is placed symmetrically over the pegs. The middle point of the string is pulled down vertically until it is in line with the masses. How far does each mass rise?

I figured out that this has to do with basic trigonometry, assuming when the line is pulled with the weights, it will form a triangle with a base width of 8 cm. The issue arises with how do I correlate the change of the height of the masses moving up and down with the height of the triangle?

Question

Two small pegs are 8 cm apart on the same horizontal line. An inextensible string of length 16 cm has equal masses fastened at either end and is placed symmetrically over the pegs. The middle point of the string is pulled down vertically until it is in line with the masses. How far does each mass rise?

I figured out that this has to do with basic trigonometry, assuming when the line is pulled with the weights, it will form a triangle with a base width of 8 cm. The issue arises with how do I correlate the change of the height of the masses moving up and down with the height of the triangle?

anonymous · Answer

See my interpretation |dw:1359010880373:dw|