Atwood's Pulley VideoLab

This experiment investigates the motion of a system of masses in Atwood's pulley, and compares this motion to theoretical predictions from Newton's Second Law.

The equipment consists of two 500 gram hooked weights and 17 grams of slotted masses (two 5g, two 2g and three 1g). Initially all 17 grams of slots are placed on the right hand side (see movie).

Slotted masses of 2 grams are transferred from the heavier to the lighter side leaving uneven masses of 13, 9, and 5 g. This changes the unbalanced force while keeping the total mass of the system constant.

Plot the height versus time of the system in each case (pages 2-5) using videolab. Paste the data into a spreadsheet and fit a polynomial to the motion. Obtain the acceleration from the quadratic term. Finally, combine the four measurements by plotting acceleration versus the unbalanced force.

What does Newton's second law predict for this system?