Question

A cable railway is driven by two large 18-foot-diameter drive wheels, called sheaves. Because of the figure-eight system used, the cable subtends a central angle of 270° on each sheave. Find the length of cable riding on one of the drive sheaves at any given time.

Answer 1

well you need to find the length of the arc of the sheave that the cable sits on.

so the fraction of the sheave that has the cable on it is 270/360 or 3/4

the arc length will be 3/4 x circumference of the sheave

so \[l = \frac{3}{4} \times \pi \times 18 \]

l = length of the cable.

hope this helps

Answer 2

it did! thank you