Calculating Force on Pillars: A Physics Moment Question

[jisaac]

Hi,
ii was just wonderin how to work out the force exerted on two separate pillars with a beam of 120kg resting on top of them
thanks

 

[rock.freak667]

So basically it is the 120kg beam resting on top of 2 more or less fulcrums?
the weight of the beam acts downwards and the normal reactions of the pillars on the beam act vertically upwards...

 

[ogb p]

Hello,

Calculating the force exerted on two separate pillars with a beam resting on top of them involves using Newton's second law of motion, which states that force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration (F=ma). In this case, the mass of the beam (120kg) is known, but we need to determine the acceleration. To do this, we can use the formula for calculating the weight of an object, which is weight=mass x gravity (W=mg). Gravity is a constant value of 9.8 m/s^2. Therefore, the weight of the beam is 120kg x 9.8 m/s^2 = 1176 N. Since the beam is at rest, the acceleration is 0 m/s^2. Now, we can plug these values into the formula F=ma, so the force exerted on each pillar would be 1176 N. Keep in mind that this is the total force exerted on both pillars, so if you want to calculate the force on each individual pillar, you would divide this value by 2. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.