What answer did you get Fizzy?
JoshMosh2 argued that it was C (apparently this was the case in an independent exam) - he said that we don't use the sin30 and simply do F=3x10^-4x 3 x 0.3
So I'm extremely confused as I was under the assumption that F=3x10^-4x 3 x 0.3 x sin30
Initially, the exam had A as the answer, but after hearing what josh said, our teacher changed the answer to C. o.o
Really?
No way. The answer should be A.
It states that the wire is of length 30cm, not that the width of the field is 30cm. If you were told that the width of the field was 30cm and the wire was within it, then fair enough, l should be 0.30m. But, seeing as the length of the wire is 30cm and it creates an angle from the perpendicular to the field, you need to solve for the perpendicular component as that is the only component which experiences a force.
This would be analogous (ok, not really analogous but EQUALLY INCORRECT) to saying that a projectile is launched at 30m/s at an angle of 30 degrees above horizontal and then using Uy = 30m/s.
Answer is A. JoshMosh (and your easily confused teacher) is (are) wrong. Soz m8.
Btw, independent marking schemes are not a valid way of determining if an answer is correct, there are always mistakes, every year. Now, tell old Joshy to find me a similar HSC question where they do not use the angle.