Question

Describe the “Atwood’s Machine” used in this lab. What are some examples of similar types of mechanisms in everyday life?

2) How does the total mass suspended from the Atwood’s Machine change in successive runs in our experiment? Explain.

3) Why would it be much harder to predict the behavior of an Atwood’s Machine that used a heavy steel cable to connect the hanging masses instead of a very light string like ours uses?

4) What is a linear fit regression line and how is it calculated?

Answer 1

a) Atwood's machine is a basic physics laboratory device used to represent physics principles and laws like newton's law of motion. We can modify the atwood machine by a cart and hanging mass system in which one mass lies on a table and other mass is hanging down over the pulley. We use elevators daily. It is an example of atwood machine. Then in villages, people use bucket tied to a rope over a pulley to take water from a well. It is also an example.

b) The total mass suspended increases in successive runs due to which the acceleration of the system decreases as per newton's second law.

c) If we use a hevavy steel cable instead of a light wire, then the weights will fall much faster and it would be difficult to predict the accurate acceleration of the system and tension in the wires.

d) Linear regression line is just a fancy name. A regression line is simply a single line that best fits the data. It may or may not include all the data points obtained via experiments. The equation for this line is given as

y = mx + b where m is the slope of the line and b is the y intercept if any.