Ok, now I'm confused.
I got to the next question and it is asking for something I don't even remember hearing about during any of the lectures and I can't find in the book. Just a simple nudge in the right direction would be great.
"The equation of motion for the central mass 5m is given...
Thank you. I took some time away from the problem, and that is what I decided to try. Thanks for letting me know I wasn't just making something up to make myself happy.
Matt
I'll just give you the question verbatim.
Consider a force pulling 3 blocks along a rough horizontal surface, where the masses are a mulitple of a given mass m, as shown in the figure below. The coefficient of the kinetic friction is u. The blocks are pulled by a force of 84umg...
I've been given the mass of 3 blocks connected by string. I know the force and the coefficient of friction and am asked to determine acceleration. The answer will be in a form something like this a=8ug. (Grrr...for not remembering how to change to scientific lettering.) Anyhow, my textbook...