Question

Jason applies a force of 4.00 newtons to a sled at an angle 62.0 degrees from the ground. What is the component of force effective in pulling the sled horizontally along the ground?

Answer 1

Answer: 1.88 N

Explanation:

Data:

Force = 4.00N
angle = 62°
horizontal force = ?

Solution:

The trigonometric ratio that relates horizontal - leg to hypotenuse is the cosine.

That ratio is:

                        horizontal - leg
cos(angle) = -------------------------
                          hypotenuse

So, applied to the force, that is:

                             horizontal force
cos (angle) = -----------------------------------
                                 total force

So, clearing the horizontal component you get:
                                         
horizontal force = force * cos (angle)

Substitute the data given:

horizontal force = 4.00N * cos(62°) = 4.00N * 0.4695 = 1.88 N

Answer: 1.88N

Answer 2

The horizontal force will be equivalent to the total force multiplied by the cosine of the angle between them, that is, since the angle is 62.0 degrees from the ground, we multiply the force by cos 62.
So the total force will be 4cos62 = 1.88 Newtons of force.