Atwood Machine

The Atwood machine (or Atwood's machine) was invented in 1784 by Rev. George Atwood as a laboratory experiment to verify the mechanical laws of motion with constant acceleration. Atwood's machine is a common classroom demonstration used to illustrate principles of classical mechanics.

The ideal Atwood Machine consists of two objects of mass m1 and m2, connected by an inextensible massless string over an ideal massless pulley.

When m1 = m2, the machine is in neutral equilibrium regardless of the position of the weights.

When m1 ≠ m2 both masses experience uniform acceleration.

Read more about Atwood Machine:  Equation For Constant Acceleration, Equation For Tension, Equations For A Pulley With Inertia and Friction

Famous quotes containing the words atwood and/or machine:

    We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?
    —Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)

    The chrysanthemums’ astringent fragrance comes
    Each year to disguise the clanking mechanism
    Of machine within machine within machine.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)