Using a force table the direction and magnitude had to be found for the following measurements:

Question

Using a force table the direction and magnitude had to be found for the following measurements:

F1 = 200 grams at 30 degrees; F2 = 200 grams at 120 degrees

The magnitude and direction found was 280 grams at 257 degrees.

Using the magnitude and direction of F1 and F2 I need to find out the magnitude and direction of the resultant vector F1-F2.

I am not sure how to do this. Thank you for you help.

Physics(Please help, thank you) - Scott, Monday, September 24, 2012 at 2:49pm
the force that was needed to balance out F1 and F2 is equal in magnitude to the resultant, but opposite in direction

so the resultant would be 280g at 77º

since F1 and F2 have equal magnitudes and are 90º apart; the expected resultant would be 283g at 75º __ so your outcome looks good

So just to make sure, is the 280 grams at 77 degrees that I obtained from the turn table the answer to the question or is it 283 grams at 75 degrees obtained when Using the Rx and Ry equations?

Answer 1

Please diregard. Thank you!

Answer 2

The answer to the question is the magnitude and direction obtained from the force table, which is 280 grams at 257 degrees. The 283 grams at 75 degrees obtained from the Rx and Ry equations is the expected resultant when F1 and F2 have equal magnitudes and are 90 degrees apart. However, since the actual measurements from the force table gave a slightly different magnitude and direction, the answer should be the values obtained from the force table, which in this case is 280 grams at 257 degrees.