How do you find acceleration without knowing the tension?

tdreceiver17 · Jan 27, 2014

Printed physics problem with a diagram of a pulley holding a 2.0 kg block and a 4.0 kg block on either side, with a 1.0 kg block hanging below the 2.0 kg block; text asks for the accelerations of the 4-kilogram and 2-kilogram blocks.

My question is how do you find the acceleration if you don't know the Tension. If someone could just elaborate on the question as a whole it would be very helpful.

I didn't really know anything about how to do this problem.

lightgrav · Jan 27, 2014

do you really _not_ know which way it will fall? does it look balanced?

MostlyHarmless · Jan 27, 2014

Start with this notion and see where it gets you: Tension on both sides will be the same, since this pulley is massless/frictionless. Also, in order for the the blocks to move down the 4kg mass side, T must be less than the the weight of the 4kg mass. Make sense?

How do you find acceleration without knowing the tension?

Discussion

Similar threads