Two Masses on Inclined Plane with Pulley
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A mass (brown) slides along a plane inclined at the angle , attached to a pulley at the top with a mass (green) hanging down the right vertical side. The coefficient of friction is . The acceleration of the system and the tension are calculated and the position of the masses at time is shown.
Contributed by: Enrique Zeleny (March 2013)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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Details
Solving the equations of the system, the acceleration and tension are given by
,
,
when and moves upwards (). In the opposite case, the sign of the friction term must be changed. The system does not accelerate when .
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