Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Unit 6 Forces in Acceleration


This angel has two forces acting upon it. Weight pulls down because of the force of gravity. Tension is a force that pulls up from the angel because it is hanging from a cord attached to the ceiling. The cord is holding up the weight of the angel so there is tension on the cord. The angel is in equilibrium because the upward and downward forces acting upon it are equal. The magnitude of the weight is equal to the magnitude of the tension so the forces are balanced.
If the cord broke then there would no longer be a tension force, only the force of gravity. Then the angel would no longer be in equilibrium. The unbalanced force of gravity would cause it to fall with acceleration. If an object is accelerating then it is not in equilibrium. It can move with constant velocity and still be balanced (a=0) but if there is any acceleration then its unbalanced. 

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