Posted by Fletcher (202.27.176.157) on May 27, 2003 at 14:48:27:
In Reply to: Yet ANOTHER idea(I THINK this is a good one, though!:-D :-)) posted by Joel L. Lewis on May 27, 2003 at 09:29:58:
Hi Joel,
I concur with the others. It does not matter what angle the 'bar' is at, it won't move to a horizontal position & will remain motionless unless it is infact unbalanced in which case the heavier end will rotate to approximately the 6 o'clock position. You can calculate this very easily in a static situation by drawing horizontal lines from the mass centres to the vertical line thru the fulcrum. This is a turning moment, being the product of mass times horizontal distance. Then allocate arbitary -ve or +ve values for left or right side of the fulcrum & add togther. If the turning moments add to zero then the assembly does not generate any rotation torue i.e. it won't / can't turn :-)