A wrecker’s ball, with a diameter of 1m and a mass of 4,000 kg, is suspended from a crane with the use of a smooth steel rope with a length of 15 m, a diameter of 20 mm and a mass of 2.5 kg/m.
a) Determine the angle that the rope will form with the vertical direction in a strong horizontal wind with a speed of 50 km/h. Assume that the rope always remains straight and that this angle is small.
b) Would the angle be smaller or larger if the wind speed were 5 km/hr? Justify your answer.

Contributed by Stavros Tavoularis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.