Physic Normal Forces

Question

Mountain goats can easily scale slopes angled at 60° from horizontal. What are the normal force and the static friction force acting on a mountain goat that weighs 900 N and is standing on such a slope?

Answer 1

Given:

● The angle from the horizontal,60°

● The weight of the mountain goat, 900 N

To determine the normal force, we need to resolve the weight perpendicular to the inclination. Therefore, we can write:

N = W CosΘ

= 900 N(Cos 60°)

= 900 N(0.5)

= 450 N

To determine the static friction force, we need to sum up all the forces acting along with the inclination. We write:

F = W sinΘ

= 900 N(sin 60°)

= 900 N(0.8660254038)

= 779.42 N