1. 2.17 Find the vertical and horizontal components of each of the given forces.

a. A force of 80 kips acting downward and to the left at an angle of 20°

with the vertical.
b. A force of 60 kN acting upward and to the left at an angle of 30° with
the vertical.
2. 2.18 An inclined cable is used to pull on a log as shown. Determine the
magnitude of the force tending to lift the log and the magnitude of the force
tending to slide the log.
3. 2.19 In Problem 2.18, if the log will slide when a force of 443 lb is applied
horizontally, what is the maximum angle at which the 500-lb force can be
applied if the log is to slide?

Problem 2.18
4. 2.20 A rope is tied to the top of a 10-m flagpole. The rope is tensioned to 120 N
and then tied to a stake in the ground 20 m from the bottom of the pole. The
ground is level. Find the vertical and horizontal components of force applied at
the top of the flagpole.
5. 2.21 A rope tow is used to pull skiers up a snow-covered slope that is 1000 ft
long and has a slope of 17° measured from the horizontal. On a recent good
skiing day it was noted that the maximum number of people on the tow never
exceeded 38. Calculate the maximum tension in the rope under these conditions.
Assume that the total weight of each skier is 175 lb. Assume that the slope is
frictionless.
6. 2.22 Determine the slope triangle dimension s so that the horizontal components
of the two forces shown are equal in magnitude and opposite in sense. Then find
the resultant of the force system.

1.
Problem 2.22
2. 2.23 The crane wheel applies a 9500-lb force to the rail as shown. Find the
vertical and horizontal components.
 Problem 2.23
3. 2.24 The horizontal and vertical components, respectively, of a force P are given.
Compute the magnitude, inclination with the X axis, and the sense of the force
P.

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this chapter, readers will be able to:
• Determine an equivalent point load to represent a distributed load.
• Find the resultants of concurrent, parallel, and nonconcurrent coplanar
force systems using parallelogram theorem and method of
components.
• Calculate magnitude of moment of force for parallel and
nonconcurrent force systems.
• Analyze a force couple.
.

.1 Resultant of Two Concurrent

Forces
In Chapter 2 we established a rationale and method for determining a resultant of two
orthogonal forces. It was shown that the resultant force was, in effect, equivalent to the
sum of the two original forces. The reverse process in which two orthogonal
components were derived from a single force was also described. The effect of the two
components, acting together, was the same as the effect of the original force.
In both those situations, the two forces that acted in conjunction with each other were
orthogonal, at right angles to one another, usually collinear with an X–Y axis system.
This was a special case.
A more general case is one in which the coplanar concurrent forces are not acting at
right angles to each other, as shown in Figure 3.1a where a barge is being towed by
two tugboats.