🧭 Project Summary
A force table is a circular table with pulleys mounted around its edge. Strings run from a central ring, over the pulleys, to hanging weights — each string pulls the ring with a force whose size depends on the weight, and whose direction depends on which pulley it runs over. Your teacher will assign you two forces, each with a known magnitude and angle.
Your job: calculate exactly the third force — magnitude and angle — that would hold the ring perfectly still at the center of the table. Then set that third string up for real, hang the weight you calculated, and see how close the ring actually sits to dead center.
The three days
Turn in
- Your predicted balancing force (magnitude and angle) versus what you actually measured
- A free-body diagram of the ring showing all three forces in equilibrium
Why it matters
Every force you've drawn so far in Unit 2 has pointed in one of a handful of simple directions — straight down, straight up, left, right. Real forces rarely cooperate that neatly. This project is where force vectors grow up: any angle, any combination, added correctly using math instead of a guess.
🧩 Before You Start — Prerequisite Check
This project leans on Lessons 2-1-1 and 2-1-2, plus a brand-new skill — adding 2D force vectors — that gets taught inside this project's own Deep Dive.