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The drawing shows an A-shaped ladder. Both sides of the ladderare equal in lengt

ID: 1759682 • Letter: T

Question

The drawing shows an A-shaped ladder. Both sides of the ladderare equal in length. This ladder is standing on a frictionlesshorizontal surface, and only the crossbar (which has a negligiblemass) of the “A” keeps the ladder from collapsing. Theladder is uniform and has a mass of 28.1 kg. Determine the tensionin the crossbar of the ladder.

The drawing shows an A-shaped ladder. Both sides of the ladderare equal in length. This ladder is standing on a frictionlesshorizontal surface, and only the crossbar (which has a negligiblemass) of the A keeps the ladder from collapsing. Theladder is uniform and has a mass of 28.1 kg. Determine the tensionin the crossbar of the ladder.

Explanation / Answer

Draw an imaginary line down the middle of the ladder. If we figureout the forces in half the ladder, all the forces will be mirroredon the other side. However, even in just half the ladder the netforce will be zero. So half the weight of the ladder is 14.05 kg, and the angle fromvertical is 15 degrees. The tension in the crossbar is going to bethe force pushing the leg of the ladder out to the side, which isits mass*gravity vector which becomes mass*gravity*sin(15) so 14.05 kg * 9.804 m/s2 * sin(15) will be your answer,in Newtons

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