Question

A 20 kg weight-on. A table is attached by a string to another 20 kg weight that is hanging over thhe edge of the table. Assuming that the coefciea oittien is 0.2, what is the acceleration and what is the tension in the string?

Answer 1

Since both masses are same, let us represent mass by m.

For the suspended mass, $ma = mg -T$

For the mass on the table,

$ma = T - \mu mg$

Solving both the equations,

Acceleration is given by

$a = g(1-\mu) /2 = 10(1-0.2)/2 =4 m/s^2$

Tension is given by,

$T = m(g-a)=20(10-4)=20\times 6 = 120 N$