Two Blocks with rope and Pulley on Inclined Plane

Click For Summary

Homework Help Overview

This problem involves two blocks connected by a rope over a pulley, with one block on an inclined plane and the other hanging vertically. The objective is to determine the tension in the rope and the acceleration of both blocks, given their masses and the angle of the incline, while assuming no friction.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster discusses using both rotated and non-rotated axes to analyze the forces acting on the blocks. They express confusion about the cancellation of terms in their equations and seek clarification on their approach.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively engaging in clarifying the signs of the forces and the components of acceleration. Some guidance has been offered regarding the consistency of signs in the equations, but there is no explicit consensus on the correct approach yet.

Contextual Notes

There is mention of potential confusion due to the orientation of forces and accelerations, as well as the original poster's fatigue affecting their understanding. The problem constraints include the absence of friction and the need to analyze the system from different reference frames.

Dahaka14
Messages
73
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


This is a problem that I am trying to help my friend with. I understand how to solve this problem the traditional way by rotating the axes of the block on the inclined plane, but then my friend asked me to show him how the answer is the same with non-rotated axes.
There are two blocks connected by a rope that goes over a pulley, one block of mass m[tex]_{2}[/tex] hanging by the rope over the edge, and the other block of mass m[tex]_{1}[/tex] on the inclined plane. Given the angle of the plane with the horizontal, and without any type of friction, find the tension in the rope and the acceleration of the two blocks.


Homework Equations


m[tex]_{1}[/tex]=5kg
m[tex]_{2}[/tex]=10kg
[tex]\theta[/tex]=40[tex]^{0}[/tex]
[tex]\sum[/tex]F[tex]_{x:m[tex]_{1}[/tex]}[/tex]=Tcos[tex]\theta[/tex]+Ncos[tex]\theta[/tex]=-m[tex]_{1}[/tex]acos[tex]\theta[/tex]
[tex]\sum[/tex]F[tex]_{y:m[tex]_{1}[/tex]}[/tex]=Tsin[tex]\theta[/tex]+Nsin[tex]\theta[/tex]-m[tex]_{1}[/tex]g=m[tex]_{1}[/tex]asin[tex]\theta[/tex]
[tex]\sum[/tex]F[tex]_{x:m[tex]_{2}[/tex]}[/tex]=0
[tex]\sum[/tex]F[tex]_{y:m[tex]_{2}[/tex]}[/tex]=T-m[tex]_{2}[/tex]g=-m[tex]_{2}[/tex]a


The Attempt at a Solution


I somehow get the Tsin[tex]\theta[/tex]'s to cancel when dividing the force equations to eliminate the m[tex]_{1}[/tex]a's. Maybe it's just the end of the day and I'm tired and suck at this. Can someone please help?[tex]_{}[/tex]
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Careful with the signs of the components of N and the acceleration. (Make sure your signs for the acceleration are consistent.)
 
Well, i made the acceleration of m1 positive y (+sine) and negative x (-cosine) because it is moving "up and to the right." My normal force is acting "up and to the left," so it has a positive y and positive x orientation. The difference is that m2 has an acceleration in the negative y direction. Does this sound like it would be correct? If you need me to, I can explicitly write out what I did, but if you don't need me to I won't because the tex can get tedious.
 
Dahaka14 said:
Well, i made the acceleration of m1 positive y (+sine) and negative x (-cosine) because it is moving "up and to the right."
OK. For some reason, you take "to the left" as positive. No problem, just be consistent. That means that the x-component of the tension must be negative.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
7K
Replies
46
Views
7K
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 68 ·
3
Replies
68
Views
14K
Replies
19
Views
5K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K