Trigonometry Example 1

Solution

Place the tail of the 200-N vector at the origin and indicate the components as shown in the figure below:
Trigonometry figure - exercise

Using trigonometry to find the x and y components of a vector.
We first compute the x component, Fx, by noting that it is the side adjacent.
The 200-N vector is the hypotenuse. Using the cosine function, we obtain the following:
F_x = (200 N) cos 70° = 68.4 N

To find F_y, we write:
F_y = (200 N) sin 70° = 187.94 N

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Date of last modification: Summer 2019