Practice Questions

1.How can you use a scale diagram to resolve a force of 50 N acting at 45° to the horizontal?

Use a suitable scale 1cm = 50N. Draw a line representing the 50 N force at an angle of 45° to the horizontal, this would be 5cm long.

Now, resolve the force into its horizontal and vertical components:

Draw both a horizontal and vertical line from the origin of the force line, end these lines where they would form a rectangle with the force line, if dotted lines are drawn in. 

2. Describe how a free-body diagram helps in resolving forces.

A free body diagram allows us to see only the forces acting on a particular object. It will allow us to split a diagonal force into vertical and horizontal components. 

We can then see the magnitude of these horizontal and vertical components

3.What is meant by the term resolving a force?

This is the splitting of a diagonal force into both horizontal and vertical components.