What is the horizontal and vertical component of this force if we choose the upward and the right to be the positive direction? A person is dragging a box to the left upward with a force of 10 N. The force forms angle of 60 degrees with the horizontal.

We can see in the graph that the horizontal component is the adjacent side of the 60 degree angle, so we can use cosine and the vertical component is the opposite side of the 60 degree angle, so we can use sine. horizontal component = vertical component = Then we notice that the horizontal component is to the left, which is opposite of the direction we define as positive. So the correct answer is -5N for horizontal component. The vertical component is positive, and it is 8.7N.