The distance between two telephone poles is 50.0 m.

When a 1.00-kg bird lands on the telephone wire midway between the poles, the wire sags 0.200 m.
Draw a free-body diagram of the bird. How much tension does the bird produce in the wire? Ignore the weight of the wire.

What do I do now?

2 answers

Look at the triangle formed with the wire and the horizontal, and the bird vertical.

At the bird, the force down is 1/2 mg (we are doing only one side, due to symettry). The other force is tension, along the wire.

Looks like sinSag=1/2 mg/tension and...
tanSag= .2/50

use the second dto find angle Sag, and the first to solve for tension.
how much tension the birdroduce in the wire?