Question

. A sled sits on the snow. Three people are pulling on it with ropes. The first rope points 45◦ north of east, and a person pulls it with a force of 200 N. Another rope points southward, and someone pulls it with a force of 300 N. The third rope points 30◦ north of west, and the last person pulls it with a force of 100 N.

(a) Draw a free-body diagram, showing the forces of the three ropes. (Note: this should be a top-down view, so gravity and the force of the ground will not appear since they point into and out of the page.)

(b) You would like to stop the sled from moving. In which direction, and with what force, should you pull the fourth rope?

Answer 1

The sum of all the forces must be zero for the sled to stop moving. We use properties of vector addition to find the required value and direction of the fourth force as shown below

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