You are a sucker for scenic overlooks, so you want to build a house overhanging a cliff. The way you do this is by taking a 20,000 N concrete beam and hang it over the edge of the cliff with one edge at the cliff ledge and the other edge 700m away in free space. You plan to hold it up with a sturdy cable which can withstand a maximum tension 500,000 N and which you tie to a tree that is 200 m tall, weighs 2000 N and is held to the ground with a force of 45 N. The tree is 7m from the edge of the cliff. Assume that the tree is genetically engineered to be really tough so that if the cable pulls too hard the whole tree will come out instead of breaking in the middle. Your house is a beautiful swiss chalet that weighs 750,000 N and the drop to the ground at the bottom of the cliff is a mere 2,000m. The center of mass of the chalet is 500m from the ledge of the cliff.
1. find the normal force of the cliff on the beam. Give a quantitative value?
2. what is the tension in the cable?
3. Will this scheme work?
1 answer