- #1
posto002
- 26
- 5
- Homework Statement
- I'm supposed to find the vertical displacement of the hanging object in the middle by coming up with a formula for it. I am confused by this and was wondering if someone could help me out. I have a system with 2 pulleys and 3 weights. They are all held together by one string. There are two weights on the outside of the two pulleys, both have the same mass, which hold up the weight in the center.
The system has a central object B with mass (M) which is suspended half way between two pulleys by a string. The whole system is in equilibrium. The objects
A and C, which are on the outside of the pulleys, have the same mass of (m).
What I need to solve for is: what is an equation for the vertical displacement of the central object B in terms of the horizontal distance between the two pulleys (L), the mass of object B (M), and the mass (m) of objects A and C?
- Relevant Equations
- none given
I got the equation --> d=mL/[2*(√(2M)^2-m^2)] where M is one of the masses at either end (multiplied by 2 because... there's two of them.) and m is the mass in the middle of the system. Something that a TA told me was that L, the horizontal distance of the system changes. I'm confused by this because during the lab, we never shifted the pulleys in anyway, nor were we required to. Can anyone explain this to me?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.