Question

a) How does the equilibrant relate to the resultant?

b) If I had 4m pointing east and I subtracted 2m pointing west, what would my resultsnt be?

Answer 1

a) Resultant is a single force that can replace the effect of a number of forces. "Equilibrant" is a force that is exactly opposite to the resultant. Equillibrant and resultant have equal magnitudes but opposite directions.

b) let say you have vector A as 4 m in east and vector B as 2 m in West.

Now we have to subtract B from A as per the question,

R = A - B

where (- B) corresponds to the same vector as B but have opposite direction.

then we can say (- B) = 2 m East.

now,

R = 4 + 2 = 6 m east

Thus the resultant is 6m East.