A person is pulling a freight cart with a force of 52 pounds

A person is pulling a freight cart with a force of 52 pounds. How much work is done in moving the cart 50 feet if the cart\'s handle makes an angle of 30° with the ground?

Solution

The person is pulling with a force of 52pounds at an angle of 30 degrees with respect to the ground. We want to use cosine to find the horizontal force component. And then we can calculate W = (Horizontal Force) x (Distance). We want the horizontal force component because that is the component that is parallel to the direction the cart is moving.

(cos 30)(52pounds) = 45.033321 pounds (This is the horizontal force component.)
W = (45.033321) x (50 ft) = 2251.66605 ft*pounds

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