SOLUTION: Two tow trucks try to pull a car out of a ditch. One applies a force of 1500 lbs, the other 2000lbs. The resultant force is 3000lbs. What is the angle between them?

Algebra.Com
Question 282780: Two tow trucks try to pull a car out of a ditch. One applies a force of 1500 lbs, the other 2000lbs. The resultant force is 3000lbs. What is the angle between them?
Found 2 solutions by Greenfinch, Edwin McCravy:
Answer by Greenfinch(383)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Total force is 3500 lbs, resultant is 3000 lbs
therefore arccos (3000/3500) is the angle between
arccos 6/7 = 31 degrees

Answer by Edwin McCravy(20060)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Two tow trucks try to pull a car out of a ditch. One applies a force of 1500 lbs, the other 2000lbs. The resultant force is 3000lbs. What is the angle between them?


The other tutor's solution is incorrect!

Here are the two forces.  We want to find 



To draw the resultant, we first draw 2 lines, one 
through each arrowhead parallel to the other vector.
This completes a parallelogram.
I'll draw them in green below.  Notice that the angle 
labeled  is the supplement of angle 

 

Then the resultant is the vector whose tail coincides
with the two vectors, and whose arrow tip is at the
opposite vertex of the parallelogram.  I'll draw the
resultant in red.  We are told that this resultant force
is 3000#:
   





We have all three sides of the triangle with the angle .
So we can use the law of cosines to find angle 







Since  and  are supplementary,



Edwin

RELATED QUESTIONS

Two tow trucks try to pull a car out of a ditch.One tow truck applies a force of 1,500... (answered by Edwin McCravy)
Two jeeps at a 90 degree angle to each other try to pull a car out of the snow. If one... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)
A large ship has run aground and two tugboats are going to pull it free. One tugboat... (answered by Alan3354)
Sam and bob pull on two ropes to try to get their truck out of the mud, Sam pulls... (answered by htmentor)
Two forces act on an object at 30° to each other. One force has a magnitude of 180 N,... (answered by KMST)
two soccer players kick the ball at the same time . one exerts a force of 72 newtons... (answered by Fombitz)
Please help me with this problem: Two forces act on a point. One force is 38 newtons.... (answered by Alan3354)
Two equal force act on a body at an angle of 80(degrees). If the resultant force is 100... (answered by Mona27)
4. 2 leashed dogs are held with the same hand. One dog pulls with a force of 15 lbs at an (answered by jim_thompson5910)