Haha, yes I did the experiment. :P
I think I've got it now. I had to re-read this whole conversation a few times, but I think I've got it. I can't thank you enough BvU, you've been so extremely helpful and patient. I think I had just spent too much time looking over old physics stuff and...
Wouldn't that mean the mass is accelerating upwards at a=g? I would have expected that the answer would have to do with the rotation of the pulley on the rope.
Sorry, but can you explain the logic behind the fact that the left side has a tension of mg?
So what you are saying is that the tension is uniform throughout the rope, right? If I pull both ends of the rope, I end up with a rope with uniform tension. So the tension on the left is 1/2 mg and the tension on the right is 1/2 mg, meaning the mass doesn't accelerate?
This doesn't seem...
BvU, you've nearly got the picture perfect. If you remove the circle (or pulley) at the bottom and attach the string directly to the mass m (the rectangle), it will be perfect.
So here come some questions:
So based on what you wrote and what I've learned, the pulley has no moment of inertia...
What is the moment of inertia of massless (ideal) pulley that has a string attached to its center and a mass m attached to that string?
If this pulley were hanging from a massless rope that was attached on one side to the cieling and the other side had a tension of mg, what would be the...