Recent content by volcore

Right, thanks for the help

Ah, so from the right hand diagram I can see that L and W are equal in length and therefore equal in magnitude, and R is less than W, giving me the second answer. Thanks a lot!

Sorry, what exactly do you mean by a triangle of forces? Should I separate the two tension forces into triangles, like a 50 40 90 triangle for the left wire, and a 20 90 and 70 triangle for the right?

Net force would be zero right?

How would I tell their relation to gravity though?

would there be three forces acting on the block, 2 forces pointing down, one to the right, and one to the left representing the left and right strings respectively, with the third force being gravity?

Sorry, what exactly do you mean by an equilibrium analysis?

So create a free body diagram of all the forces acting on the block?

The correct answer is the second one. I honestly have no idea why this is so. I understand that the right rope has less tension that the left one since it's at a shallower angle from real world experience, but I don't really know why this is so, let alone how the forces compare to gravitational...

So where do I go from there? Would this be right: (2.5kg)g(0.54m) = 1/2 m1v1^2 + 1/2m2v2^2 1.35g = 3.75v1^2 + 0.5v2^2?

Bad wording on my part, since kinetic energy is defined as 1/2 mv^2, wouldn't the 3.5kg block receive more of the system's kinetic energy since it has more mass, and both are moving at the same velocity?

I'm not sure. Since I can't calculate their individual kinetic energies, I'm kind of lost. Would the heavier block gain more since it's presumably moving faster?

Yeah, I remembered to multiply by +0.54 in my actual calculation, but accidentally omitted it when posting the thread, my mistake.

Wouldn't the system gain kinetic energy of around (2.5kg)g(0.54m) since that's how much potential energy its losing?

Thanks for all of your help, I was able to calculate the correct answer!