What is the acceleration of a falling block attached to a pulley system?

In summary, the problem involves a 2 kg block resting on a table with a coefficient of friction of 0.75. A string attached to the block passes over a pulley and is connected to a 4 kg block. The pulley is a 0.5 kg uniform disk with a radius of 15 cm. As the 4 kg block falls, the string does not slip on the pulley. The question is, what is the acceleration of the 4 kg block and what is the tension in the string above and below the pulley? Using the equations for frictional force and Newton's second law, the acceleration is found to be 3.9 m/s². However, calculating the tension in the string
  • #1
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Homework Statement


A block of mass m1 = 2 kg rests on a table with which it has a coefficient of friction µ = 0.75. A string attached to the block passes over a pulley to a block of mass m3 = 4 kg. The pulley is a uniform disk of mass m2 = 0.5 kg and radius 15 cm. As the mass m3 falls, the string does not slip on the pulley.
With what acceleration does m3 fall?

Homework Equations


Frictional Force = mew x normal
F = MA
Newtons' second law

The Attempt at a Solution


If I could treat the pulley as a point and didn't have to pay attention to it this would be a cinch. To be honest, I don't know what to do with it at all, and I'm looking for some conceptual help here.
 
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  • #2
Much time later, I finally got the acceleration to be 3.9. The next question in this set is: what is the tension in the string above the table, and below the pulley. (They will be separate.)
Now, since F=MA, I thought this would be easy. 3.9 x 4 = 15.6. It itsn't that easy, it turns out. Any ideas?
 
  • #3
Well, 15.6 N is the net force on the 4 kg mass.

This force is due to the string tension and what else?
 

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