Two forces with magnitudes of 100 and 50 pounds act on an object at angles of 50° and 160° respectively. Find the direction and magnitude of these forces. Round to two decimal places in all intermediate steps and in your final answer.

Question

whpalmer4 · Answer

Draw yourself a careful diagram.  Then use $x = r \cos \theta$ and $y = r \sin \theta$ to break them into their horizontal and vertical components.  As a check, from the diagram you can see that the 100 lb force will be split about evenly going to +y and +x, and the 50 lb force will be mostly going to -x and a bit of +y. |dw:1360638121676:dw|