How Much Work Does a Tow Truck Perform When Pulling a Car?

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the work done by a tow truck pulling a stalled car using the tension in the chain and the angle of inclination. The tension in the chain is 1500 N, and the angle with the road is 30 degrees. The correct formula for work is W = Fcosθ * d, where F is the force, θ is the angle, and d is the distance. The final calculation confirms that the work done is 1125000 J, affirming the necessity of using the cosine of the angle in the work equation.

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Homework Statement


A tow truck drags a stalled car along a road. The chain makes an angle of 30 deg with the road and the tension in the chain is 1500 N. How much work is done by the truck in pulling the car 1 km?


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The Attempt at a Solution


What I'm confused about is whether we use W = FD or W=FDcos30
What I did was find the horizontal component of force (though I don't know if we use this or the tension given) F = 1500cos30=750*sqrt(3)
then i did W = FDcos30 = 750*sqrt(3)(1000)(cos30) = 1125000

Do i even put cosine again to find work?
Or can i just do W=FD
W=750*sqrt(3)(1000) = 1299038
 
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No the component of the force in the direction of motion is Fcosθ, so the work done is W=(Fcosθ)d, which is what you first did.
 

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