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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Newton's Problems

Over the past week or two, we learned about four of types of Newton's problems: Equilibrium, Inclines, Pulleys, and Trains. Now, at first, you might be like What cause it can get confusing.
Don't worry, though! All you have to do is: Consider the Following
For all the problems, it is important to remember to break down all the vectors into x and y components.
There are also some tricks that can be used:
For equilibrium, remember that the acceleration is always zero, because the object isn't moving. That was pretty obvious.
For inclines, be lazy and tilt your head so you only have to break down one vector instead of two.
For pulleys, remember to draw two free body diagrams and treat the pulley as two systems, not one. Also, the acceleration of the whole system is the same.
Finally, for trains, also break it down into multiple FBDs. Acceleration is consistent, so when trying to figure it out, you only need to draw one FBD and figure it out from there. (:

See? Wasn't that easy? Now you can solve any simple Newton's Problem.
Tina Fey High Five

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