About Blocks, torques and wedges

[willworkforfood]

Problem picture below:

http://portfolio.iu.edu/whoblitz/problem2.PNG

I know Newton's second law for torque torquenet=I*alpha and regular old Fnet=m*a, but I don't see how they fit together here (how I can account for frictional forces and torque at the same time). Help appreciated, thanks

 

[Maxwell]

Have you drawn a free body diagram and summed up all the forces in each direction?

 

[willworkforfood]

My problem with that is I don't know what to put for the force of the torque(s
? one or two) created by the wheel.

 

[willworkforfood]

Still not working out to even close to the right answer here and drawing a free body diagram isn't helping the situation as it is just confusing me more with force components, et. al.

 

[Carolyn]

I think this link may help you,

the problem is a little different but the concepts behind it is actually the same.

http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/py105/Torque.html

 

[willworkforfood]

Still isn't helping, I keep drawing the free body diagrams and getting wrong and different answers. After solving for the torque forces (tensions) in that example, does it make a difference that the second torque is at an angle on an incline?

What would the equation for the net torque even look like in this problem? Is there some easier way to do this than ugly free body diagrams?