"The little ball with the mass of 100g has gotten stuck in a chute as depicted in the picture. What forces, and how large are they, that are acting on the ball?"
This is how I solve it:
I find the force of gravity acting on the ball: $0.1kg * 9.8m/s = 0.98N$
Next I construct a right triangle from the point of contact. Since the ball touches in two places the force of gravity is halved on each side.
Where $x$ is the normal force on the ball.
$x = 0.49N * sin(20^o) = 0.17N$
There's two of these normal forces, one on each side. As such we have a gravitational force of 0.98N and two normal forces, each of 0.17N.
The answer given in the book is that there is a gravitational force of 0.98N, and the normal force is 1.4N. What am I doing wrong here?