What is the horizontal component of a force when pushing a lawn mower with 60 N at a 30-degree angle?

To determine the horizontal component of a force when an object is pushed at an angle, you can use the cosine function from trigonometry. The horizontal component can be calculated by multiplying the total force by the cosine of the angle of the applied force.

In this scenario, the total force is 60 N and the angle is 30 degrees. The formula used to find the horizontal component (F_horizontal) is:

F_horizontal = F_total * cos(θ)

Substituting the values gives:

F_horizontal = 60 N * cos(30°)

The cosine of 30 degrees is approximately 0.866. Therefore, the calculation becomes:

F_horizontal = 60 N * 0.866 ≈ 51.96 N

When rounding, this value is typically reported as 52 N. This is why the answer provided, which is 52 N, is the correct value for the horizontal component of the force when pushing the lawn mower at that angle.

The other options do not yield the correct value when using the cosine function to resolve the force into its components.