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)
“I brush my hair,
waiting in the pain machine for my bones to get hard,
for the soft, soft bones that were laid apart
and were screwed together. They will knit.
And the other corpse, the fractured heart,
I feed it piecemeal, little chalice. I’m good to it.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)