Question

A baby elephant is stuck in a mud hole. to help pull it out, game keepers use a rope to apply a force f with arrowa, as part a of the drawing shows. by itself, however, force f with arrowa is insufficient. therefore, two additional forces f with arrowb and f with arrowc are applied, as in part b of the drawing. each of these additional forces has the same magnitude f. the magnitude of the resultant force acting on the elephant in part b of the drawing is k times larger than that in part
a. find the ratio f fa when k = 2.10. (take θ = 18.0°.) f fa = 1.05 incorrect: your answer is incorrect.

Answer 1

The two forces should be equal therefore:

2.10 * Fa = Fa + 2 * F * cos 18

simplifying the right side:

2.10 * Fa = Fa + 1.902 * F

1.10 Fa = 1.902 F

F / Fa = 0.578