Harry and ron set up this experiment with a glider, whose mass they have measured to be 565 g, and seven washers hanging from the string. if each washer has a mass of 12 g, what is the acceleration of the system, in m/s2
Let's call [tex]m=565~g=0.565~kg[/tex] the mass of the glider and [tex]m_w=7\cdot12~g =84~g=0.084~kg[/tex] the total mass of the seven washers hanging from the string. The net force on the system is given by the weight of the hanging washers: [tex]F_{net} = m_w g[/tex] For Newton's second law, this net force is equal to the product between the total mass of the system (which is [tex]m+m_w[/tex]) and the acceleration a: [tex]F_{net}=(m+m_w)a[/tex] So, if we equalize the two equations, we get [tex]m_w g = (m+m_w)a[/tex] and from this we can find the acceleration: [tex]a= \frac{m_w g}{(m+m_w)} = \frac{0.084~kg \cdot 9.81~m/s^2}{(0.565~kg+0.084~kg)}=1.27~m/s^2 [/tex]
