SOLUTION: Two equal force act on a body at an angle of 80(degrees). If the resultant force is 100 newtons, find the value of one of the two equal forces to the nearest hundreth of a newton.

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Question 83145: Two equal force act on a body at an angle of 80(degrees). If the resultant force is 100 newtons, find the value of one of the two equal forces to the nearest hundreth of a newton.
Answer by Mona27(45) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Making a scale drawing (or even a simple sketch) of the problem will greatly help. If you can picture two forces acting on a body at an angle of 80 degrees to each other, then you can draw the resultant (100 N) by completing the shape into a rhombus, where the resultant is the longer diagonal.
One of the interesting properties of a rhombus is that both diagonals bisect each other at right angles AND bisect the angle (80).
This means if we complete the drawing with the diagonals we will have 4 congruent right angled triangles.. to find one of the sides of any of the triangles (one of the required forces) we can then use trigonometry.
cos+40+=+50%2Fx
x=50%2Fcos40=65.27
Sorry I'm still learning how to use the site. I'll try to post a diagram if I can in future. But I hope this helps for now.