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phy121
Your 'cq_1_19.1' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
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The equilibrant of a force is the force which is equal and opposite to that force. If two forces are equal and opposite, their x and y components are also equal, but the x and y components of the force are opposite in sign to those of the equilibrant.
The x and y components of a force are 2 Newtons and 3 Newtons repectively.
• What are the magnitude of this force and what angle does it make as measured counterclockwise from the positive x axis?
Magnitude = squareroot (2^2 + 3^2) =3.6 newtons
Angle = arctan 3/2 = 56.3 degrees
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• What are the components of the equilibrant force?
The equilibrant force would be x componenet of -2 newtons and y componenet -3 newtons
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• What angle does the equilibrant force make as measured counterclockwise from the positive x axis?
Arctan (-3/-2) +180= 236 degrees
Is it correct to add only 180 degrees since both the x and y components are negative????
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If you change the sign of both components, this puts you in the opposite quadrant, at 180 degrees from your original direction.
This in fact is the reason that the rule for finding the angle of a vector is to use the arcTan, and add 180 deg if the x component is negative.
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