written by
Wolfgang Christian and Jose José Goncalves
The Atwood Machine in a Fluid model shows two masses connected by strings and pulleys immersed in a water tank. Each mass is acted on by gravitational, buoyant, and drag forces. Users can change density of the left and right mass using input fields and can drag either mass to change the initial conditions. Note that the floor of the tank produces a normal force that limits the motion.
If the water is removed the tank, the model behaves like a traditional Atwood machine. Adding water changes the dynamics in many ways. Because the buoyant force varies as the mass is submerged, the system oscillates anharmonically about an equilibrium point that depends on the mass densities.
The Atwood Machine in Fluid model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_mech_fluid_AtwoodMachineInFluid.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.
Please note that this resource requires
at least version 1.5 of Java.
Atwood Machine in Fluid Source Code
The source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the Atwood Machine in Fluid model. Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS. download 9kb .zip
Last Modified: May 8, 2011
previous versions
<a href="https://www.compadre.org/OSP/items/detail.cfm?ID=10410">Christian, Wolfgang, and Jose José Goncalves. "Atwood Machine in Fluid Model." Version 1.0.</a>
W. Christian and J. José Goncalves, Computer Program ATWOOD MACHINE IN FLUID MODEL, Version 1.0 (2010), WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886).
W. Christian and J. José Goncalves, Computer Program ATWOOD MACHINE IN FLUID MODEL, Version 1.0 (2010), <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886>.
Christian, W., & José Goncalves, J. (2010). Atwood Machine in Fluid Model (Version 1.0) [Computer software]. Retrieved October 13, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886
Christian, Wolfgang, and Jose José Goncalves. "Atwood Machine in Fluid Model." Version 1.0. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886 (accessed 13 October 2024).
%A Wolfgang Christian %A Jose José Goncalves %T Atwood Machine in Fluid Model %D October 11, 2010 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886 %O 1.0 %O application/java
%0 Computer Program %A Christian, Wolfgang %A José Goncalves, Jose %D October 11, 2010 %T Atwood Machine in Fluid Model %7 1.0 %8 October 11, 2010 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10410&DocID=1886
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