Question

A body 'X' of weight 400N placed on the left side of a seesaw 250cm away from the pivot. A body 'Y' of weight 300N is placed on right side of seesaw 3.5m away from pivot. Has the seesaw attained equilibrium?Show your work?​

Answer 1

No.

Step-by-step explanation:

if it's in equilibrium then the torque or moment of inertia on both sides should cancel.

Torque is a vector quantity, force times distance.

When doing these, make sure your units are the same by changing centimeters to meters first.

Left side is 400N * (-2.5m) = -1000 Nm

Right side is 300N * (3.5m) = 1050 Nm

-1000 Nm + 1050 Nm does not equal zero so there's a torque on the teeter and it will rotate clockwise. The system is not yet in equilibrium.