finding magnitude of resultant force, direction of movement

[btrfly24]

Man, I'm having a tuff time tonight?! I attached the picture that I drew of the diagram because it's easier than trying to explain it! Could someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance. Catherine.

 

[soroban]

Hello, Catherine!

Do you mean that the diagram looks like this?

                          * 1
                      *
              200 *
              *
          *  20°
      *   *   *   *   *   * 2
        * 30°     500
          *
            *
              *
            800 *
                  *
                    *
                      * 3

I would write the forces in vector form.

. . \(\displaystyle \begin{array}{ccc}\vec{v_1}\:= & \left\langle-200\cos20^o,\,200\sin20^o\right\rangle \\
\vec{v_2}\:= & \left\langle 500,\,0\right\rangle \\
\vec{v_3}\:= & \left\langle 800\cos(-30^o),\,800\sin(-30^o)\right\rangle \end{array}\)

. . and add them.

 

[btrfly24]

ok cool, thanks so much for your help. That was easier than I thought!