Thanks lzxnl
"This tells you something about the normal reaction force. What's the component of the normal reaction that's vertical?"
Would this be the force they have labelled R
" vertical force components must cancel and sum to zero."
Why is this?
Also if you were to draw a triangle to find the centripetal force how would it look like and where would theta be placed?
Hey knightrider,
Normal force is the force, which is points [vertically] upwards, thus it is
R (generally, but not in all cases)
As Iznxl said that the vertical components must cancel [Subract] from one another, so you can get the net force.
Do remeber that the Net force = centripetal force =
=
As this is a banked curve, the centripetal force would face towards the centre of the radius (so in the same direction as Friction), which is facing [horizontally] right.
Therefore, the correct answer would be
Rcos(theta), as cos corresponds to the horizontal value of a graph.
EDIT: what do you mean by your last question? You already have a triangle made up in the question, then why make another one?
Hopefully this helps