Question

Two horses on opposite sides of a narrow stream are pulling a barge up the stream. Each hors pulls with a force of 720N. The ropes from the horses meet at a common point on the front of he barge. What is the resultant force exerted by the two horses if the angle between the rope is 60 degrees?

Answer 1

For the answer to the question above, each horse's force forms a right angle triangle with the barge and subtends an angle of 60/2 = 30°. The resultant in the direction of the barge's motion is:
Fx = Fcos(∅)
We can multiply this by 2 to find the resultant of both horses.
Fx = 2Fcos(∅)
Fx = 2 x 720cos(30)
Fx = 1247 N