Physics question that has struck me down merciness

[cclawfjj]

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The sled dog drags sleds A and B across the snow. The coefficient of friction between the sleds and the snow is 0.490, the mass of sled A is 119.0 kg, and the mass of sled B is 85.8 kg. If the tension in rope 1 is 130.0 N, what is the tension in rope 2?

 

[bigchoader]

i give up

 

[SnowTown]

130

 

[cclawfjj]

130

the answer has to be in 3 SFs...
yeah, at first glance, i thought it'd be a simple add and substract force vectors...but theres little more to it...

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

[Phil Anthropist]

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[Metatemujin]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=361110
Sorry moderator, but I thought this question was interesting and had to answer it.
The sled dog drags sleds A and B across the snow. The coefficient of friction between the sleds and the snow is 0.490, the mass of sled A is 119.0 kg, and the mass of sled B is 85.8 kg. If the tension in rope 1 is 130.0 N, what is the tension in rope 2? posted by cclawfjj
(sled A) ---rope1-----(sled B) -----rope2---
This was actually a very interesting problem. I am not sure if I am right, but this is how i would approach it. I believe the key is the realization that the acceleration for both sled A and sled B must be equal to each other. In case of sled A, the acceleration should obviously be zero since the frictional force opposing motion is roughly 583 N, while the tension in rope 1 is only 130.0 N. On sled B there are 3 forces. Frictional force, tension force from rope 1, and tension force from rope 2. Since the acceleration of sleb B and sled A must be equal, and we know the acceleration of sled A is zero, we know that the acceleration in sleb B must also be zero. This implies the net force on sled B is zero. Since tension rope 1 is 130 and the frictional force is 412.0116, then in order for the net force to be zero tension rope 2 must be 130 + 412.0116 = 542.0116 Newtons.

 

[braluk]

Merging this with the closed thread. Thank you for the reply, I think the poster or whoever is interested in this will find this helpful. 🙂