Question

An Atwood machine has two masses, m₁ and m₂. Describe what happens if m₁ is slightly more than m₂. What happens as m₁ becomes much more than m₂? Are the forces acting on the masses balanced or unbalanced? What about the forces acting on a falling insect?

Answer 1

An Atwood machine with masses m1 and m2, where m1 > m2, will accelerate due to unbalanced forces. As m1 greatly exceeds m2, the system's acceleration increases. A falling insect experiences unbalanced forces until reaching terminal velocity, where forces become balanced.

Step-by-step explanation:

When using an Atwood machine with two masses, m1 and m2, and if m1 is slightly more than m2, m1 will descend while m2 will ascend, with the system accelerating due to the unbalanced force. As m1 becomes much more than m2, the acceleration of the system increases since the unbalanced force becomes larger. When considering the forces acting on the two masses, they are unbalanced since the weight of the heavier mass exceeds the weight of the lighter mass, leading to the acceleration of the system.

Now, considering a falling insect, it experiences two main forces: gravitational force pulling it downwards and air resistance force pushing it upwards. These forces become balanced when the insect reaches terminal velocity, at which point it falls with a constant speed. Before reaching terminal velocity, the forces are unbalanced, causing the insect to accelerate.