A tape,pulley,disk and undisclosed mass.

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a physics problem involving a disk unwinding from a tape, a pulley, and a suspended mass. The participants are exploring the relationships between the accelerations of the disk and the mass, as well as the angular acceleration of the disk.

Discussion Character

  • Mixed

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are attempting to relate the linear accelerations of the mass and the disk to the angular acceleration of the disk. There are discussions about the assumptions regarding slipping and the nature of the tape versus a string.

Discussion Status

Some participants have provided equations and attempted to solve for the accelerations, while others are questioning the assumptions made about the motion of the disk and the tape. There is an ongoing exploration of the implications of these assumptions on the relationships between the variables.

Contextual Notes

There is a noted ambiguity regarding whether the disk rolls without slipping, as well as the distinction between a tape and a string, which may affect the analysis of the problem.

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the question is:
A disk of mass M and radius R unwinds from a tape wrapped around it. the tape passes over a frictionless pulley, and a mass m is suspended from the other end. assume that the disk drops vertically.
1. relate the acclerations of m and the disk, a and A, respectively to the angualr accelration of the disk.
(the answer clue reveals that the naswer is: if A=2a, then alpha=3A/R.
my answer is that the acceleration of the disk equals -a+[tex]\alpha[/tex]R=A and then i get that if A=2a then alpha equals 3a/R, but it's the opposite it should be 3A/R, which i don't see how to arrive at this.

anyway, in the attached file there's a pic of this, the above left pic.
thanks in advance.
 

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I don't know if I'm doing this wrong, but this is what I get:

Let the tension in the string be T, acceleration of the disk be A and of the mass be a and R be the radius of the disk.

For the small mass m:

T-mg=ma ---1

For the disk:

Mg-T=MA

[tex]TR=I\alpha[/tex]

[tex]I=\frac{MR^2}{2}[/tex]

[tex]A=R\alpha[/tex]

Solving these, A=2g/3, T=g/3, [tex]a=\frac{g(M-3m)}{3m}[/tex]. What did I do wrong?
 
the problem is that it's not given to you that the disk rolls without slippering, if it were so, then obviously we would have A=R*(alpha).
 
But if the rope is wound tightly across the disk, then it must roll without slipping as there is no other option. It can't slip (across what?). Therefore a=r(alpha) must hold.
 
In any case, the velocity of the string along the tension must be the same at all the points on the string.
 
the problem is that's not a string but a tape!
 

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