Question

Forces with magnitudes of 2000 newtons and 900 newtons act on a machine part at angles of +30degrees and -45degrees respectively, with the right side of the x-axis. Find the direction and magnitude of the resultant of these forces.

Answer 1

To get the resultant magnitude and direction of the forces we need to separate the force into its x and y components. For the x components it is the sum of 2000cos(30) and 900cos(45), which is 2368.4469 N. For the y components it will be the sum of 2000sin(30) and -900sin(45), the value for the second force is negative because it is pointing downwards, their sum would be 363.6038 N. The magnitude for the resultant force can be determined using the pythagorean theorem R=sqrt(2368.4469^2 + 363.6038^2) while its direction is found using tan^-1(363.6038/2368.4469). The final answer would be 2396.1946 N with an angle of 8.7279 degrees from the right side of x axis.