Question #384a4

1 Answer
Jun 27, 2015

The reactive force exerted on the body will be equal to 25 N.

Explanation:

An equilateral triangle has all three internal angles equal to 60^@.

This means that, regardless on which side your triangle stands on, its other two sides will form 60^@ angles with the horizontal.

![https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilateral_triangle](useruploads.socratic.org)

Either side of the triangle will thus be equivalent to an inclined plane

![http://www.quora.com/Why-is-normal-force-on-a-banked-curve-different-from-normal-force-on-an-inclined-plane](https://d2jmvrsizmvf4x.cloudfront.net/tPt5USKTAWodWFKGtKAA_main-qimg-53327b3c0b795f33aeba2042e688631a)

The normal force exerted on the body will be equal to

N = mg * cos(theta), where

m - the mass of the body;
g - the gravitational acceleration;
theta - the angle formed by the inclined plane with the horizontal.

Plug your values into the above equation and solve for N (assume g to be equal to 10"m/s"^2)

N = "5 kg" * 10"m"/"s"^2 * cos(60^@)

N = 50 underbrace(("kg" * "m")/"s"^2)_(color(blue)("=Newton")) * 1/2 = color(green)("25 N")