In the last Mathskit (PHYSICS REVIEW Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 12–15) I showed how to find the resultant of a combination of forces using scale drawing and trigonometry. I will now extend that by explaining how to analyse a force combination using an idea that may be new to you, known as Lami’s theorem.
Look at Figure 1. The water bottle and contents have a combined mass of 0.843kg; stack 1 (m1) is of an unknown mass and stack 2 (m2) has a mass of 0.550kg. The red, blue and green pieces of string are all knotted at a single point. The mass of the string is negligible.
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