Help!!!

[ashenkashea]

I've been trying to figure out this problem but I'm not sure how to do it........I won't give the actual numbers, because I don't want you to feel like you're doing my homeowork....."A string with a mass on each end hangs over a frictionless pulley. The acceleration of the system has a magnitude of about:" So what would I do to figure out the acceleration. Is there an equation someone can give me? Thanks a lot!!!!

Erica

[Sirus]

You should know where an equation comes from and what it means before you use it. Try to reason your way through this. A good way to do pulley problems is to draw the pulley as a horizontal system (one mass on the left, connected to the other mass on the far right, with the pulley wheel in the middle). First figure out which way the pulley will accelerate. Now identify the forces that act upon the masses. Use simple formulas like F = ma and remember about tension forces...you should be able to solve it.