Simon Bridge said:Very good. How are you going about it?
ie. did you try Newton's method of drawing free body diagrams for each mass?
I think you may have left out some important information in your problem statement:glover261 said:Yeah I found the forces acting downwards but I think they are irrelevant because all the acceleration for the system would be in the sideways direction.
This cannot follow from post #1 because you have not given any values for m1, m2 or F. It is unlikely to be correct because you have not accounted for the force from the spring.I found that the acceleration of the 3kg (larger) mass is 15/3= 5ms/^2,...
Yes....but I'm not sure if this is correct because wouldn't the spring be pulling back on it and therefore lowering its acceleration?
This is not how you would normally treat the accelerations of coupled masses is it?I am not really sure how to find the acceleration of the whole system, do I try find the acceleration of each mass and add them?
You include the force due to the spring in the free body diagram.How do I do that when a spring is involved?
A "2 Masses connected by a spring" system is a physical system consisting of two masses that are connected by a spring. The masses are usually denoted as m1 and m2, and the spring has a spring constant k. This system is commonly used in physics to study the behavior of oscillating systems.
The equation of motion for a "2 Masses connected by a spring" system is given by:
m1x1'' + k(x1-x2) = 0
m2x2'' + k(x2-x1) = 0
where x1 and x2 are the displacements of m1 and m2, respectively, and the double prime represents the second derivative with respect to time.
The natural frequency of a "2 Masses connected by a spring" system is given by:
ω = √(k/m)
where k is the spring constant and m is the reduced mass of the system, given by m = (m1m2)/(m1+m2).
The spring constant, k, affects the motion of this system by determining the strength of the spring force. A higher spring constant will result in a stronger spring force, causing the masses to oscillate at a higher frequency and with smaller amplitudes. A lower spring constant will result in a weaker spring force, causing the masses to oscillate at a lower frequency and with larger amplitudes.
The masses, m1 and m2, affect the motion of this system by determining the inertia of the system. A higher mass will result in a lower natural frequency and larger amplitudes of oscillation, while a lower mass will result in a higher natural frequency and smaller amplitudes of oscillation.