Biophysics strikes back

Question

The Biophysics students are having their usual Saturday night biophysics party performing physics
experiments at a classmate’s home. This Saturday it is in an apartment building and you notice
a managemnt student (MS) passed out in the stairwell. The class immediately thinks of a home
experiment and drags the MS to the room. The class ties the MS to an ironing board (IB) with duct
tape. Two ropes are tied to either end of the IB and the other ends are tied to the balcony railing.
The MS and IB are thrown off the balcony and left to hang there. The MS and IB have a combined
weight of 75.0 DaN. The left rope makes an angle of 10.0
o
relative to the vertical and the right rope
makes an angle of 20.0
o
relative to the vertical. What is the tension in both ropes? (The magnitude
and direction of the force applied by the rope on the IB.)

Answer 1

T1 cos 10 + T2 cos 20 = W
T1 sin 10 = T2 sin 20

Solve the second for either and plug back into the first