Vector Diagrams Practice

1 Tug boats are used to pull large ships in shallow water.

Fig. 1.1 shows two tug boats pulling a large ship.

Fig. 1.1

The mass of the large ship is 3 × 106 kg. The angle between the forces exerted by the tug boats
is 45º. Each tug boat pulls with a force of 10 000 N in the direction as shown in Fig. 1.1.

Use the lines on the next page to draw a suitable scale diagram to determine the resultant force
the tug boats exert on the large ship. On your diagram, show the direction of each force. State
the scale used.
[4]

1
 Scale = 1 cm represents ……………….. N

Resultant force = .………………. N

2
2 Fig. 2.1 shows a weight of 8 N hanging from the end of a rope. It is pulled sideways by a
horizontal force F of 5 N and is held stationary.

Fig. 2.1
By drawing a suitable scale diagram, determine the magnitude of force T. State the scale used.
[4]

Scale = 1 cm represents ………………… N

Magnitude of T = ………………… N
3
3 Fig. 3.1 shows a painting that is held by two wires and a nail. The tension in each wire is 4.0 N
and the angles between the wires is 60º.

Fig. 3.1

By drawing a suitable vector diagram to scale, determine the weight of the painting. State the
scale used.
[4]

Scale = 1 cm represents ………………… N

Weight = ………………… N
4
4 A mass of weight 7.0 N hanging on the end of a string is pulled sideways so that the string makes
an angle of 30º with the vertical as shown in Fig. 4.1.

Fig. 4.1

By means of a scale diagram, determine the resultant force due to the tension in the string and
the weight of the mass. State the scale used.
[3]

Scale = 1 cm represents ………………… N

Resultant force = ………………… N

5
5 A compass needle is subjected to two forces as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

By making a scale diagram in the space provided below, determine the resultant force on the
needle. State the scale used.
[3]

Scale = 1 cm represents ………………… N

Resultant force = ………………… N