What did I do wrong in finding the resultant of these vectors?

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In summary, the conversation revolved around finding the resultant of a vector using components. The speaker used the cosine rule to find the blue line in the picture and then added it to the third vector to find the white arrow, the total resultant. However, their answer did not match with the one in the book. They also used the sine rule to find the angle of the resultant, but it was different from the one in the book. The expert suggests using components as the most straightforward method.
  • #1
sponsoredwalk
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I have to find the resultant of:

[PLAIN]http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8263/68709011.jpg

So I decided to break it up into components:

[PLAIN]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7032/71250823.jpg

(The black arrow in the first picture is the blue arrow in the second, that's the way I did it!)

I found the blue line in the picture using the cosine rule:

[itex] c \ = \ \sqrt{30^2 \ + \ 40^2 \ - \ (2 \cdot 30 \ \cdot \ 40 \ \cdot \ \cos(120)) [/itex]

c = 60.827 and it's just horizontal along the x-axis.

Then I added c = 60.827 to the third vector:

[PLAIN]http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/1917/92586648.jpg

I found the white arrow, the total resultant, using the same technique:

[itex] d \ = \ \sqrt{25^2 \ + \ 60.827^2 \ - \ (2 \cdot 25 \ \cdot \ 60.827 \ \cdot \ \cos(105)) [/itex]

d = 71.5

My book says the answer is 67.6

I got the angle of the resultant using the sine rule:

[itex] \theta \ = \ \sin^{-1} ( \frac{25 \cdot \sin(105)}{60.827} ) \ = \ 23.39 [/itex]

My book says the angle is: 11.3°

What did I do wrong?
 
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  • #2
Where did you get 105? Clearly the most straightforward way to do this is to break it up into components, i.e. x=30cos45+40cos15+25sin15
y=30sin45-40sin15-25cos15
r^2=x^2+y^2
theta=arctan(y/x)
 
  • #3
The 105° comes from adding the 90° angle under the red vector in third picture with the
15° the blue vector is making, giving 105°.

The problem was asked to be solved in component form but I tried it this way & got
the wrong answer, I can't see why & am totally stumped & would just like to know
why.
 
  • #4
I don't know, round off errors most likely. Components are the way to go, less calculations.
 
  • #5
Yeah I had a good look at it & realized I'd assumed too much, I didn't calculate the
angle of the first resultant vector, I got a better answer, thanks!
 

FAQ: What did I do wrong in finding the resultant of these vectors?

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