The Atwood experiment

Today you will use a "modified Atwood's machine" to compare the actual forces and accelerations of objects to the values you derive from theory.

What's an Atwood's machine? Simply a device in which two objects are connected by a cord over a pulley, so that as one falls down, the other rises:

Our device is "modified" by placing one of the objects on a horizontal table.

• What are the forces acting on the cart and weight?
• Your task: measuring the actual acceleration of the modified Atwood's machine
• Example of a graph from this experiment
• Example of a nice format for a scientific report
• If one does NOT assume that friction is zero .... then how could one find the force of friction?
  • how to find the force of friction (PDF)

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.