Question

I am attempting to do this problem but unsure about how to go about it as I have summed the forces to 0 but don't know what else to do.

Answer 1

A systematic algorithm for writing equations from Newton's law is as follows -

Step 1 - Decide the system

Step 2 - Identify the forces

Step 3 - Make a free body diagram

Step 4 - Choose axes and write equations

Write the components of all the forces along the X-axis(along direction of motion) and equate their sum to the product of the mass of the system and its acceleration(If a = 0 then ). This gives you one equation. Write the components of the forces along the Y-axis(along perpendicular of motion) and equate the sum to zero. This gives you another equation. If the forces are collinear, this second equation is not needed. If necessary you can go to step 1, choose another object as the system, repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 to get more equations. These are called equations of motion. Use mathematical techniques to get the unknown quantities out of these equations. This completes the algorithm.