VECTORS AND FORCES
II. COMPONENT FORCES
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Remember Case 6 from Section
I? When the box is pulled to the right and up, it's as if
there was only one force pulling the box diagonally. Therefore, we say
that the diagonal arrow is the resultant force
(daya paduan) of the 2 original forces.
Similarly, if the box was pulled diagonally by only 1 force, that force can be separated into 2 components (dileraikan kepada 2 komponen): The horizontal component (komponen ufuk) and the vertical component (komponen tegak) |
When given two or more forces, you can work out the resultant force by rearranging the arrows. Line them up so to form a continuous chain, starting from the 'tail' of one arrow and following their directions to the end. Draw a line from the start to the end, and that line is your resultant force. |
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The
technique works no matter which direction the forces are.
This is also a demonstration of the parallelogram technique (kaedah segi empat selari). The animation shows that you get the same resultant force no matter which way the lines are arranged. |
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Let's say the box is being moved diagonally 5 N. | ||||||||||||||
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Draw the lines to scale (e.g. 5 cm to represent 5 N, or 10 cm to represent 5 N). Make sure your angles are accurate too. | ||||||||||||||
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Draw the resultant force and measure it. If you used 5cm and 6cm, you would get 4.7cm. If you used 10cm and 12cm, you would get 9.5cm. Either way, when you convert it back to match your scale, you would get about 4.736 N. (Drawings will always have tiny inaccuracies) | ||||||||||||||
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Ok, let's try to split a force now. Say the box is being pulled with a force of 4.7 N, at 54o to the horizontal. | ||||||||||||||
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Draw a right-angled triangle (segitiga sudut tegak) with to
represent the horizontal component and to represent the vertical
component.
To check, use the Pythagorean Theorem. You will find that Fx2 + Fy2 = 4.72. |
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