How to Calculate Weight 'a' on T-Shaped Tower - Simple Explanation

[mrmagoo]

Hi all

WOnder if you could quickly explain how to calculate this?

I need to understand how to calculate weigth 'a' which 10 cm to the left of the shaft from the top of a T shaped tower when weight 'b' is 4kg's 10cm from the shaft and weight 'c' is 2kg's and another 10 cm along on the opposite side?

is there a basic calculation involving the known weights and the distances involved?

Many thanks
MrM

 

[berkeman]

Sounds like you need to add up the torques about the rotational axis and adjust weight a to balance out the net torque to zero. What are the defining equations for torque calculations (like it asks you in the homework posting template that you did not use -- please use it in the future).