Hi, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to do a tension problem. The problem states: A kind daddy is pushing his little gir on a swing in the park. One fun thing to do is to hold her in equilibrium for a moment with a horizontal force before releasing her so she can swing back. The vector sum of the daddy's force, the little girl's weight and the force of the two chains of the swing is then zero.
Given: The little girl has a weight of 200N and the chains of the swing make an angle of 25degrees to the vertical.
Find: A. What is the combined tension in the TWO chains? B. With what force must daddy push horizontally to hold his little girl in equilibrium?

I've looked at the answer to A and it says 221N. I can't figure out HOW that is figured out! I've done the Fx=Rcos(theta) and the Fy=Rsin(theta). My text book is a intro to the fundamentals of physics (refresher course) and I've been racking my brains on how to figure out the combined tension of the two chains! How did they get 221N! :confused:

I believe that I have figured it out. By using the F = w/2cos(theta) formula. Instead of using the 2 (because that's the both sides), I did NOT use the 2 but used instead:
F = w/cos(theta) and came up with the answer. I now know how to do half a tension problem and it only took a couple of days to figure out. :-)