How am I supposed to solve for the components of P that keep the particle in equilibrium if I am given no information about the direction of F3 going arbitrarily into an octant? I tried setting up a system of equations with two unknowns they just end up zeroing out. Shit has me stumped.
>>1575927it's been twenty years since I studied mechanics and I sucked at it even then, but aren't F1 and F3 the only components of force that act out of the yz plane? so in order for the forces to balance at all, F1 and F3 must be balanced in the x-axis. that at least narrows it down
>>1575943This was my first thought as well. P being drawn along yz at least tells you the x component of F3. But the y and z components would still be impossible to determine.
I ended up figuring it out. While you do not know the magnitude of P, you can represent its y and z components as |P|cos20 and |P|sin20. You now know enough to use the equilibrium equation F3=-(F1+F2+F4+P). Since you know the magnitude of F3 you can then set all of the components equal to 200 in the square root sum of squares equation and solve for |P| using the quadratic formula. Once you have the two possible |P| values, you test them with the equilibrium equation to see which one gives components of F3 with signs that match the graph. One of the most roundabout problems I've ever done. Fuck.
>>1575943F1 and F3? Surely you mean the XY plane. All vectors are either on or have components on the YZ plane.
