Dana has a sports medal suspended by a long ribbon from her rearview mirror. as she accelerates onto the highway, she notices that the medal is hanging at an angle of 15 â from the vertical. part a does the medal lean toward or away from the windshield? does the medal lean toward or away from the windshield? away from the windshield toward the windshield submitmy answersgive up correct part b what is her acceleration?

Refer to the diagram shown below.

m = the mass of the medal
T =  the tension in the string
g = 9.8 m/s²

Part (a)
The inertial force, F, tends to move the medal away from the windshield when the vehicle accelerates to the right.

The medal leans away from the windshield.

Part (b)
For force balance,
T cos(15°) = mg
0.9659 T = 9.8m
T = 10.1457m N

Also,
F = Tsin(15°) = 10.1457m*0.2588 = 2.6257m N
The inertial force is equal to the accelerating force, therefore
the acceleration, a, is given by
(2.6257m N) = (m kg)*(a m/s²)
a = 2.6257 m/s²

2.626 m/s²