Find the range of acceleration so that the drums won't fall

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around determining the range of acceleration for a system of drums to ensure stability, specifically focusing on the conditions under which the drums will not fall. The subject area includes dynamics and Newton's laws of motion.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to establish the upper bound of acceleration using Newton's second law but expresses uncertainty about finding the lower bound. Participants question the conditions under which the system might fail and discuss the implications of normal forces in different scenarios.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively exploring the problem, with some guidance offered regarding the conditions that lead to the upper and lower bounds of acceleration. There is an ongoing examination of the normal forces involved in the system's stability.

Contextual Notes

There are references to images that were initially not visible, which may contain important information for understanding the problem setup. The discussion highlights the need to clarify these visual aids for better comprehension.

QuantumRose
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Problem:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19PDuyshgP6u4U9mXU3BfrF031J8wL12B
oil_drums.png

Attempt: I tried to solve the range by listing out the Newton's 2nd laws of each drum
1.png

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Eslg2Wy3orG41eywwm_O6qN4OQ3QN-bA
and from the equations of the drum 2, I get
N1_N2.png

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19MFda8L_YuDBlsOg1_76O3-w1rJjHhfW
Since drum 2 must stay on the bottom drums, so it will not fly up, thus
upper_bound.png

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tpDM2zHyDQ84m73GC0EgcZsNz5Q4tq1z
I got the upper bound of the acceleration, but I don't know if it is correct.My question:
Although I got the seemingly correct upper bound of the acceleration, but I don't know how I can get the lower bound of the acceleration?
 

Attachments

  • oil_drums.png
    oil_drums.png
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  • 1.png
    1.png
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  • N1_N2.png
    N1_N2.png
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  • upper_bound.png
    upper_bound.png
    9.4 KB · Views: 545
Last edited:
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None of your images show up
upload_2018-9-19_15-0-25.png
 

Attachments

  • upload_2018-9-19_15-0-25.png
    upload_2018-9-19_15-0-25.png
    2.2 KB · Views: 796
phinds said:
None of your images show up
View attachment 230886
I just fixed that, now it should be fine.
 
QuantumRose said:
got the seemingly correct upper bound of the acceleration, but I don't know how I can get the lower bound of the acceleration?
Each bound corresponds to the system falling apart. In which two ways can that happen? What can you say about the normal forces in those two cases?
 
haruspex said:
Each bound corresponds to the system falling apart. In which two ways can that happen? What can you say about the normal forces in those two cases?

Well, I think there are two cases, one is for the upper bound I solved(corresponds to the top drum flying up); the other case is for the lower bound(it corresponds to the situation when the top drum is falling down, i.e. N_1 and N_2 are not enough to support the top drum.)
 

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