I'm working on a question that I really need some help with. It involves a relationship between the length in feet (l) of a column and the force in grams (f) it takes to buckle. The function is modelded as such: f = (k / l ^ 2)
I know that this is an inverse function becasue the function does not pass through the origin or the point (0,0). Here is what I need to know.... If k = 2000, I need to find the force needed to buckle the column of a length if 15 feet. Here is the function I have modeled and I hope it is correct:
f = (2000 / 15 ^ 2)
I have no idea how to solve this problem from here.
The next question is if the force required to buckle the column was 60 grams, I need to find the length of the column. I think the function looks like this...
60 = (2000 / l ^ 2)
Don't know where to go from here?
I really need some help and as soon as possible please. I will of course award 10 pts for best answer.
2007-07-05 18:11:59 · 1 answers · asked by fastertiger 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
f = 2000/ 15^2; 15^2 = 225, so f = 2000/225 = 9.89
60 = 2000/ L^2; multiply both sides by L^2 to get
60*L^2 = 2000; divide both sides by 60
L^2 - 2000/60 = 33.33; take the square root of both sides
L = √33.33 = 5.77
2007-07-05 18:29:35 · answer #1 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋