Question

1. In a classical Atwood's machine setup (like this lab), what are the forces that will be discussed?

a)The weight of the masses on each pulley and the tension in the string

b)	The weight of the masses on each pulley.

c)	The Mtotal Mtotal times g and the tension on the string.

d)	The masses on each pulley and the tension in the string

2. What's the total mass of the system in our case of the Atwood's machine?

a) varies depending on the hanging masses.

b)	changes the value of the acceleration due to gravity, g.

c)	is the sum of the hanging masses and will be kept constant through the experiment.

d)	depends on the acceleration of the masses.

3. In this experiment, Newton's 2nd law will be used to find the acceleration for each of the masses hung from each side of a pulley. To find a mathematical expression for the acceleration, we will have to make several assumptions, one of them being...

a)	The magnitude of tension on the string is different for each of the masses.

b)	the acceleration for each of the hung masses is the same (both magnitude and direction (up or down)).

c)	the acceleration for each of the hung masses has the same magnitude but different direction (up or down).

d)	The weight of each of the hung masses is the same.

4. In the setup of the Atwood's machine experiment, the slope of a graph of velocity as a function of time, is ...

a) the position of the masses at that specific acceleration.

b)	the acceleration of the hanging masses.

c)	The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Earth, g = 9.81 m/s2.

d)	the velocity of the hanging masses.

5. Derive an expression for the acceleration of the Atwood's machine as a function of g, delta m, and Mtotal. Draw a graph of a prediction of acceleration vs delta m and justify.

I have half of the chart filled out already I just need to find the acceleration for that delta m. The first two numbers are the masses on the strings and what is in parenthesis is delta m.

Answer 1

I am told to answer first four questions.Sorry for not answering the 5th question.I am going to give you the formula,not deriving it

1

Since there are two forces-Tension and weight of the two masses

a) The weight of masses on each pulley and tension in string

2.

c) Total mass of system is total weight of hanging masses.

3.

c) the accleration for each of the four masses has same magnitude but different direction

4

b) the accleration of hanging masses

5.

a=g(m1-m2)/(m1+m2)

m1-m2=delta m

g=accelearation due to gravity

m1+m2=Sum of weights