In: Mechanical Engineering
Forces F1 and F2 act on the bracket as shown. Determine the projection Fb of their resultant R onto the b-axis.
Solution
The parallelogram addition of F1 and F2 is shown in the figure. Using the law of cosines gives us The figure also shows the orthog
R2=(80)2+(100)2-2(80)(100)cos130°, so R=163.4N
The figure also shows the orthogonal projection Fb of R onto the b-axis. Its length is
Fb=80+100cos50°=144.3N
Note that the components of a vector are in general not equal to the projections of the vector onto the same axes. If the a-axis had been perpendicular to the b-axis, then the projections and components of R would have been equal.