Yeah I think I was just struggling with the torque concept since it seemed to be a dead end unless major assumptions were made as you point out. It's a poorly framed question in my opinion.
I will go ahead and use a horizontal force balance approach. In your opinion would you consider using...
I had been referring to the fact that I thought the torque axis would be placed at the crane, but like you point out, I need to consider that the "support cables may also exert a torque about your axis".
For this reason, I would say that the torque axis would need to be placed at the center of...
Regarding the "torque", that is what I meant. Your questions about the torque approach make me think that maybe it is not the best approach to solve the problem. It seems like you are hinting at this?
There wouldn't be enough information from the prompt to reasonably go down a torque pathway...
Hi @Lnewqban and @haruspex , thanks for the replies! I've attached my work. Let me know if you can see it.
I wasn't too sure about the torque, but the torque would be taken around the axis of the crane. In other words it would torque around a horizontal plane, perpendicular to the direction of...
I tried a method solving for the force of the wind first which I found to be 2842.95 N. From there I found the torque force using torque = F_wind x d, where I let d = 90ft. This leads to a torque of 77987.8044 Nm. From there I used Tension = torque/moment arm, with a moment arm of 20ft (half of...