A body 'X' of weight 400N placed on the left side of a seesaw 250cm away from the pivot. A body 'Y' of weight 300N is placed on right side of seesaw 3.5m away from pivot. Has the seesaw attained equilibrium? Show your work?

Question

Nancy Martinez

Physics

29 May, 12:03

A body 'X' of weight 400N placed on the left side of a seesaw 250cm away from the pivot. A body 'Y' of weight 300N is placed on right side of seesaw 3.5m away from pivot. Has the seesaw attained equilibrium? Show your work?

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Answers (1)

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Paulina Espinoza · Answer 1

No.

Explanation:

if it's in equilibrium then the torque or moment of inertia on both sides should cancel.

Torque is a vector quantity, force times distance.

When doing these, make sure your units are the same by changing centimeters to meters first.

Left side is 400N * (-2.5m) = - 1000 Nm

Right side is 300N * (3.5m) = 1050 Nm

-1000 Nm + 1050 Nm does not equal zero so there's a torque on the teeter and it will rotate clockwise. The system is not yet in equilibrium.