Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Physics Help (forces and angles)?

Pyramid workers were often tasked with balancing large slabs of stone. Take the case of five workers, equally sharing the force to tip a stone at an angle θ above the horizontal using a light rope. (a) If θ = 18.0°, what force must each worker be exerting on the rope? (your answer will be in terms of the mass m) (b) As the angle θ increases, assuming the workers do not change the angle of the rope, does the force required by each worker increase, decrease, or stay the same? (c) What angle (θcritical) do the workers have to apply zero force to balance the slab? What happens if this angle is exceeded?

1 Answer

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Then, the maximum amount of total force is equal to the normal force of the stone, so we have....

    m_stone * g * µ_static = F_total_app * cos(θ)

    F_total_app = m_stone * g * µ_static/cos(θ)

    So each worker must apply the equal amount of force of m_stone * g * µ_static/cos(18) N to make the stone moves.

    As the angle θ increases, the force required by each worker decreases. Consider this...

    F_net1 = F_app/5 * cos(18)

    F_net2 = F_app/5 * cos(36)

    Then, F_net1 > F_net2.

    Good luck!

    Source(s): τ
Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.