Question

You wish to raise a heavy piano to a second story (y = 8 m) by pulling it with a massless rope. You have two choices to move it, and you will move the piano at a constant speed in either case:

a) Place a friction-less board on the stairs, creating a 15 degree incline and pull it up this incline until you reach the second story.

Answer 1

To solve the problem of raising a heavy piano to a second story, we apply physics principles, using free-body diagrams to represent various forces such as tension, weight, and pulling force.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the scenario of raising a heavy piano to a second story, the subject of physics is used to understand the forces at play when the piano is pulled up a frictionless incline or lifted directly upwards. Newton's laws of motion are applied to analyze the situation. When sketching the problem, as suggested, various forces such as the tension in the rope (T), the gravitational force or weight of the piano (W), and the pulling force (F) should be represented with arrows on a free-body diagram. If the piano is moved at constant speed, the net force acting on the piano is zero, and so the tension in the rope would equal the component of the piano's weight parallel to the direction of motion. This is the case whether lifting the piano directly vertically or pulling it up a frictionless incline.