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Balancing a meterstick
A meterstick is found to balance at the 49.7 cm mark when placed on a fulcrum. When a 50 g mass is attached at the 10 cm mark, the fulcrum must be moved to the 39.2 cm mark for balance.What is the mass of the meter stick?
Why would the meterstick not always balance at the 50 cm mark?
Customer support service by UserEcho
It will when there is nothing on it, but when you put a mass on one side, it will want to tip, so you must move the fulcrum so that all torques cancel. If you draw a picture and label all the forces( there are only 3), it should make sense. Only 2 forces will cause torque, so they must be equal in magnitude for there to be no net torque.
Hope this helps!