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An object is placed upon an inclined plane with an incline angle of 25 degrees. As the incline angle is increased towards 90 degrees, the parallel component of the weight vector ____.
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The force of gravity is always directed straight downward. In the case of inclined planes, this is neither in the direction of the acceleration nor perpendicular to it. The goal is always to have all forces directed perpendicular or parallel to each other and to the acceleration. So it is the habit on an inclined plane analysis to resolve the force of gravity into two components - one being parallel to the inclined plane and the other perpendicular to it. The value of the parallel component can be determined using a trigonometric function (see Math Magic section). Predicting how a change in the angle would affect the value of the parallel component of gravity is a mere matter of thinking about the equation in the Math Magic section. If necessary, simply plug the two angle values into the Fparallel equation and compare the results.
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The formulas for resolving the force of gravity into its components are:
Fparallel= m • g • sine(Θ)
Fperpendicular= m • g • cosine(Θ)
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