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a_narain
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Homework Statement
Three identical books of length L are stacked over the edge of a table as shown in the figure. The top book overhangs the middle one by .5L, so it just barely avoids falling. The middle book overhangs the bottom one by .25L. How far can the bottom book overhang the table without the books falling?
Homework Equations
Torque = rFsin(angle)
Newton's second law
The Attempt at a Solution
In approaching this problem, I look at the top two books first. I noticed that the force on book 3 from 2 has to equal the gravitational force of book 3, and the torque is zero using the center of gravity of book 3 as the pivot point.
A similar situation occurred for book 2, where the force of book 3 acts on the end, and while the force of book 1 and gravity act at the center of mass. From this, I got that the force of book 1 on 2 = 2mg.
My work for book 1:
-2mgx-(.5L-x)mg+(.5L-x)3mg = 0
The answer I get when I solve for x is 1/4 L, but that is wrong?
What exactly am I doing wrong, am I setting up the problem correctly?
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