Question

You are part of a team to help design atrium of a new building. Your boss, manager of the project, wants to suspend a 20-lb sculpture high over the room by hanging it from the ceiling using thin, clear fishing line (string) so that it will be complicated to see how the sculpture is held up. The only place to fasten the fishing line is to a wooden beam that runs around an edge of a room at the ceiling. The fishing line that she wants to use will hold 20 lbs (20-lb test) so she suggests attach two lines to the figure to be safe. Each line would come from an opposed side of the ceiling to attach to the hanging sculpture. Her first plan has one line making an angle of 20o with ceiling and other line making an angle of 40o with the ceiling. She knows you took physics, so she asks you if her plan can work.