Physics 111A section 004

Lab 121: Rotational Static Equlibrium

Group members:
David Sheynkman
Deepak Sela
Meghavi Parekh
Isaac Daudelin

Written by Deepak Sela

Objective of Experiment:
To determine the weight(m) required to maintain a strut in both a Horizontal position and at an
angle.
Introduction and Background:
Torque is the cross product of the distance r and an applied force F. The moment arm is also
sometimes referred to as r and the force F is perpendicular to it.

and the magnitude of torque is given by

and when a body is in rotational equilibrium, the sum of all torques, the net torque, must be equal
to zero at any point.
Experimental Setup:
The experimental setup from the manual was followed.

Procedure and Data Analysis:

The procedure from the manual was followed

Length of rod = 59 cm
W1 = 100 g

L1 = 51.2 cm

X = 36.5 cm

W2 = 200 g

L2 = 31 cm

Y = 75.5 cm

Wr = 112.7

Lr = L/2 = 29.5 cm
Ls = 85 cm

(W1 * L1 + W2 * L2 + Wr * Lr)/x = Ty = 401.23

W = T = Ty/sin() = 452
Experimental W = 450
% difference = 0.44%

W1
100

W2
200

Wr
112.7

W=T
329

Exp W
329

%
0

Part 2
X1 = L1 cos()
X2 = L2 cos()
Xr = L1r cos()
Ls = 65
T * sin() * Lx = 11995.4

35

90

Conclusion:
This lab proved that we could determine the mass needed for a specific angle based on the result
of our calculations. (Issac, ur going to hav to type this; I came at the end of the lab so idk what it
was about)