- #1
Yosty22
- 185
- 4
Homework Statement
An adventurous archaeologist crosses between two rock cliffs by slowly going hand-over-hand along a rope stretched between the cliffs. He stops to rest at the middle of the rope. The rope will break if the tension in it exceeds 2.25*10^4N, and our hero's mass is 86.9kg.
If the angle between the rope and the horizontal is θ=11.7°, find the tension, T, in the rope.
Homework Equations
ƩF=ma
ƩFx=max
ƩFy=may
The Attempt at a Solution
All I could think of doing was breaking everything down into components, but I still can't get it right. Since θ is 11.7° below the horizontal (from the x-axis down 11.7°) [I will attach a picture], I took the components of the tension. Doing this, I got Tx=Tcos(11.7) and Ty=Tsin(11.7). Since the man is in the middle of the rope, it would mean that there is an equal vector of Tx and Ty on each side of the man. No matter how I break it up, I get: 2Tx=max and 2Ty-mg=may. No matter how I set up the equations, I am left with 2 unknowns, so I don't know if I am missing something or doing something wrong.
Thanks again in advance.