Question

At Sea World, a 900.-kg polar bear slides down a wet slide inclined at an angle of 25.0° to the horizontal. The coefficient of friction between the bear and the slide is 0.0500. What frictional force impedes the bear’s motion down the slide?

Answer 1

In this example, unlike the previous ones in this section, the polar bear is inclined at an angle to the horizontal so you must find the normal force on the polar bear by using the cosine of this angle. Remember, the normal force, FN, always acts perpendicular to the surface on which the object is moving.