1. ## Wheelchair vector question.

I'm having a bit of trouble with this problem:
Devon is holding his father's wheelchair on a ramp inclined at an angle of 20 degrees to the horizontal with a force of magnitude 2000N parallel to the surface of the ramp. Determine the weight of Devon's father and his wheelchair and the component of the weight that is perpendicular to the surface of the ramp.

So I attempted to draw a diagram:

Let vector w represent the weight of the father and his wheelchair (i think?)
Let vector p represent the 2000N force parallel to the ramp.

Did I even draw the diagram correctly? I attempted to resolve the situtation into its rectangular vector components, which i'm not too confident doing. What would I do?

2. Originally Posted by kmjt
I'm having a bit of trouble with this problem:
Devon is holding his father's wheelchair on a ramp inclined at an angle of 20 degrees to the horizontal with a force of magnitude 2000N parallel to the surface of the ramp. Determine the weight of Devon's father and his wheelchair and the component of the weight that is perpendicular to the surface of the ramp.

So I attempted to draw a diagram:

Let vector w represent the weight of the father and his wheelchair (i think?)
Let vector p represent the 2000N force parallel to the ramp.

Did I even draw the diagram correctly? I attempted to resolve the situtation into its rectangular vector components, which i'm not too confident doing. What would I do?
parallel component of weight ... $\displaystyle W\sin(20) = 2000 \, N$

perpendicular component of weight ... $\displaystyle W\cos(20)$