Halliday, Resnick & Walker — Equilibrium and Elasticity: Problem 34

34 Figure 12-38 shows a 75 kg climber hanging by only the crimp hold of one hand on the edge of a shallow horizontal ledge in a rock wall. (The fingers are pressed down to gain purchase.) Her feet touch the rock wall at distance H = 2.0 m directly below her crimped fingers but do not provide any support. Her center of mass is distance a = 0.18 m from the wall. Assume that the force from the ledge supporting her fingers is equally shared by the four fingers. What are the values of the (a) horizontal component Fh and (b) vertical component Fv of the force on each fingertip?