Calculating Tension in a Suspended Loudspeaker

[dsb_101]

A 15.0 loudspeaker is suspended 1.20 below the ceiling by two 3.50 long cables that angle outward at equal angles. what is the tension in each cable?
im really weak at this topic..
cud any1 give me a lift off here?

 

[Diane_]

I presume that's a 15.0 kg speaker, and the distanced you give are in meters? The units are important.

Anyway - do a free-body diagram of the speaker. That'll give you the vectors you need to add. We'll assume that the speaker is not accelerating (since otherwise the cables have probably broken), so what can you say about the net force on it? That'll give you the vector sum of the forces in your diagram, and from that point on it's just geometry and trigonometry.

Does that help?

 

[dsb_101]

it sure did..ty