What horizontal force is necessary to hold the bag in the new position?

[jgibbon2]

A 125 kg mail bag hangs by a vertical rope 3.3 m long. A postal worker then displaces the bag to a position 2.0 m sideways from its original position, always keeping the rope taut.

a)What horizontal force is necessary to hold the bag in the new position?
b)As the bag is moved to this position, how much work is done by the rope?
c)As the bag is moved to this position, how much work is done by the worker?

I seem to not understand how to even begin to solve this... ? Whats the first thing i should do?

 

[vanesch]

First thing you should do ? Read the problem.
Make a drawing. What's the essential element in this problem which has not been explicitly said ? (think pendulum...)

 

[m2003]

The first thing you should do is to understand the problem and identify the relevant information. In this scenario, we have a mail bag with a mass of 125 kg hanging from a vertical rope 3.3 m long. The bag is then displaced to a position 2.0 m sideways from its original position while keeping the rope taut. From this information, we can determine the following:

a) The horizontal force necessary to hold the bag in the new position is equal to the weight of the bag, which is 125 kg multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity, which is approximately 9.8 m/s^2. Therefore, the horizontal force needed is 1225 N.

b) As the bag is moved to the new position, the rope does work against the force of gravity to keep the bag suspended. The work done by the rope is given by the formula W = Fd, where W is the work done, F is the force applied, and d is the displacement. In this case, the displacement is the same as the initial length of the rope, which is 3.3 m. Therefore, the work done by the rope is 1225 N x 3.3 m = 4042.5 Joules.

c) As the bag is moved to the new position, the worker also does work against the force of gravity. The work done by the worker is equal to the work done by the rope, which is 4042.5 Joules.

I hope this helps you understand the problem and how to approach it. Remember to always identify the relevant information and use appropriate formulas to solve the problem.