Question 626426
You might want to draw a diagram. Draw a right triangle with horizontal and vertical legs. The vertical leg is the telephone pole, the horizontal leg is the ground and the hypotenuse is the guy wire. Label the guy wire with a 1 to represent the force on the wire. And label the angle between the wire and the pole as 42 degrees.<br>
To find the horizontal component of the pull, we will use sin because<ul><li>sin is opposite over hypotenuse</li><li>the horizontal side is opposite to the angle we know</li><li>we know the hypotenuse</li></ul>The equation we will use is:
{{{sin(42) = x/1}}}
which simplifies to
sin(42) = x
Just use your calculator to find a decimal approximation for the horizontal component.<br>
We will use similar logic to find the vertical component, except we will use cos since cos is adjacent over hypotenuse and the vertical side is adjacent to the angle we know.
{{{cos(42) = y/1}}}
or just
cos(42) = y
Again, just use your calculator to find a decimal approximation for the vertical component.