Question

Torques and Center of Mass. The Experiment:

In this experiment, you balance a meter stick, to balance the meter stick, attach masses at positions until the system is in equilibrium.

The meter stick acts as if all its mass was concentrated at its center of mass. With the fulcrum at the center of mass, r (the distance from the axis of rotation to the place where the force is applied) is 0, so there’s no torque due to the meter stick. If, however, the fulcrum was, say at x = 25 cm, there would be a torque independent of any masses suspended from the meter stick
cm x=25 ? mg For the following exercises, use the convention that a clockwise torque is (pos.) and a counter clockwise torque is - (neg.) Take your center of mass to be a little away from the center of the meter stick atx-49.5cm (1) Where will you put a 200 g mass to get the system to balance? x= 15 cm 100gms Answer

* Show all calculations and the prediction that the calculation led to

* Show the measured values for each scenario

Use the scenarios below to make predictions about where the 10kg trash can would need to be placed. Sketch what you think the beams would look like for the following scenarios and justify your reasoning.

Experiment 1:

Verify Experiment 1:

Verify Experiment 2:

Verify Experiment 3:

Answer 1