An object is being pulled with a magnitude of 87N. The direction of this force is 60 degrees above the x-axis. Calculate the x and y components.

To resolve a force into its x and y components, you have to use trigonometry.

If the angle that the force F makes with the positive x-axis theta then the horizontal component of the force is automatically F cos theta and the vertical component of the force is F sin theta.

So for this problem the horizontal component is 87cos60 which is 43.5N and the vertical component is 87sin60 which is 75.3N

The key to understanding how to resolve forces is to know that if you complete the parallelogram( in this case a rectangle) about the force or vector then sin theta = opposite/hypotenuse. IN this case the opposite side is the vertical component of the force and the hypotenuse is just the magnitude of the force or vector itself. So opposite = vertical component of force = hypotenuse x sin theta = F sin theta.

By similar reasoning, Horizontal component of force = F cos theta