Andy's reflection on torques, pulleys, equilibrium, and inclines

After being taught torques, pulleys, equilibrium, and inclines in class, I now see a better understanding of how things work around me that puts these physics into work.

Things I Learned

There were many things that I learned through the months. For one thing, when dealing with an object on a ramp, gravity is not affecting the object horizontally, but also vertically, which means that I will have to break it down into x and y components. These problems can be tricky when dealing with them at first, but once you get the hang of it, it can be easier.

Gravity broken down into x and y

For equilibrium, there are two conditions an object must have to be in equilibrium. First, to be in translational equilibrium (it can be at rest or moving with constant velocity) the sum of all forces exerted is zero. Second, for an object to be in static equilibrium, the sum of all the torques from the forces that exert on the object is zero.

Pulleys are the last thing i learned. I always thought that if one side of the pulley is heavier, the tension is different. However, once this topic was taught I learned that the tension in the rope is the same as the other side and also the acceleration of the masses are the same. When trying to calculate the tension of the rope I will need to break down the system to calculate it.

Things I Found Difficult

There were many things that I found difficult. Problems that gave more info messes me up because it can be tricky, which will make me use the wrong formula or plug in wrong numbers. Also, when the rope is slanted when doing pulleys, it confuses me because I don't know whether or not to use different angles or use sine, cosine, or tangent.

Problem Solving Skills

I noticed that doing practice problems instead of reading notes helps me more because I am actually doing problems and showing work which shows how the problem is being solved. Also, If I don't draw free-body diagrams, it can be harder for me to solve the problem because the free-body diagram helps a lot because if I'm doing a pulley system, for example, drawing one will show which way the acceleration will be moving in.