Question

Two people are holding a box. One person exerts a force of 140 pounds at an angle of 65.5 degrees with the horizontal. The other person exerts a force of 115 pounds at an angle of 58.3 degrees with the horizontal. Find the net weight of the box.

Answer 1

use vectors

140 pounds at 65.5 ---> (140cos65.5 , 140sin65.5)
= (58.057 , 127.3946)

115 pounds at 58.3° ---> (115cos58.3 , 115sin 58.3)
= (60.429 , 96.9925)

add them up for (118.486 , 224.387)

maginitude = √( sum of the squares of the components)
= appr 253.75

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