Objective

• To study object in equilibrium

Introduction

When a rigid body is acted upon by a system of forces, a change may be produced in the linear (translational) velocity or in the angular (rotational) velocity of the body. Under certain conditions the body will be in equilibrium, that is, there will be no tendency for either its translational or rotational motion to change.

This investigation studies the conditions for objects in static equilibrium using Newton's first law. For translational equilibrium, the vector sum of all the forces acting on an object must be zero. For rotational equilibrium, the net torque acting on any axis must be zero.

This lab is divided in several experiments. You and your partner will be working individually on each experiment (obtaining separate data). You are required to do the Tension experiment and complete at least one of the other experiments. If possible do all three experiments. The individual experiments can be done in any order. When you have finished one experiment you can move onto another experiment that is not being worked on by your partner. Vectors and trigonometry is used in the analysis of this lab's data.

Tension Question: The Levi Straus trademark shows two horses trying to pull apart a pair of pants. Suppose Levi had only one horse and attached the other side of the pants to a fencepost. Using only one horse would: (a) cut the tension on the pants by one-half, (b) not change the tension on the pants at all, (c) double the tension on the pants?