A war-wolf , or trebuchet , is a device used during the Middle Ages to throw roc

Question

A war-wolf, or trebuchet, is a device used during the Middle Ages to throw rocks at castles and now sometimes used to fling pumpkins and pianos. A simple trebuchet is shown in the figure below. Model it as a stiff rod of negligible mass 3.00 m long and joining particles of mass m1 = 0.120 kg and m2 = 72.0 kg at its ends. It can turn on a frictionless horizontal axle perpendicular to the rod and 12.5 cm from the particle of larger mass. The rod is released from rest in a horizontal orientation. Find the maximum speed that the object of smaller mass attains when it leaves the trebuchet horizontally.
m/s

A war-wolf, or trebuchet, is a device used during the Middle Ages to throw rocks at castles and now sometimes used to fling pumpkins and pianos. A simple trebuchet is shown in the figure below. Model it as a stiff rod of negligible mass 3.00 m long and joining particles of mass m1 = 0.120 kg and m2 = 72.0 kg at its ends. It can turn on a frictionless horizontal axle perpendicular to the rod and 12.5 cm from the particle of larger mass. The rod is released from rest in a horizontal orientation. Find the maximum speed that the object of smaller mass attains when it leaves the trebuchet horizontally.

Explanation / Answer

I've stuck the heavier mass at the left

16.5 cm = 0.165 m [have to use consistent units]

Don't have to worry about the mass of the rod because it's given as negligible and don't have to worry about friction because the axle is given as frictionless

Let the resultant force on the lighter mass = F and using g = 9.8 m/s

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