Ropes 3 m and 5 m in length are fastened to a holiday decoration that is suspended over a town square. The decoration has a mass of 5 kg. The ropes, fastened at different heights, make angles of 52° and 40° with the horizontal. Find the tension in the 3 m rope (T3), the tension in the 5 m rope (T5), and the magnitude of each tension.

pic
http://www.webassign.net/scalc/9-2-26.gif

1/17/2008 11:41:36 PM

it's just basic trig

1/17/2008 11:46:32 PM

diagrams diagrams diagrams

if mg is the force the star places on the sum of both strings, draw a free body diagram until you get the tensions

[Edited on January 18, 2008 at 12:03 AM. Reason : .]

1/18/2008 12:02:47 AM

Quote :

"Major: ME"

statics is gonna make your head explode

1/18/2008 12:12:30 AM

well if it's basic trig the share friend...don't u think I've tried basic trig, there's something more that's involving more complex trig and i can't figure it out, and the pic is linked da

1/18/2008 12:13:25 AM

^^ I think I know that already

1/18/2008 12:13:49 AM

it is basic trig

i'm not going to do your homework for you

do what stillfuchsia said and start drawing FBDs

and honestly, if you can't do that and figure it out you need to rethink this whole engineering thing

1/18/2008 12:18:22 AM

F=ma
cosines, length, and angles
summation of vertical forces, and summation of horizontal forces

I'm doin everything short of giving you the numerical answers

1/18/2008 12:21:56 AM

yeah shredder dont get sassy at us that you don't understand your own major.

1/18/2008 12:41:16 AM

figured, thanks for the great help

1/18/2008 12:50:28 AM

^^haha I don't know why but that made me laugh.

1/22/2008 9:48:15 AM

the best part is that he called this "Calc III help"

1/22/2008 11:02:29 AM

I haven't had Calc III in 2 years but I remember this exact problem without even looking at the picture

1/22/2008 11:09:57 AM

Ah well at least it's not something nasty like gravity and stellar motion.

1/22/2008 7:36:02 PM