Counter-Balanced Suspension Systems: Rigid and Flexible (Extensions of the Atwood's Machine).

摘要

The simplest counter-balanced suspension system is the classic Atwood's machine. The most ambitious counter-balanced system envisaged in this report consists of a lattice-type flexible structure suspended over pulleys, no longer considered frictionless, by a set of wires, no longer inextensible, and counter-balanced by an identical structure. Since the two structures do counter-balance each other, the net gravitational effect, at least at the points at which the wires attach to the bodies, is null. As might be imagined, there is a host of possibilities between these extremes. In this report, we record some of these and indicate how the motion of each may be analyzed. Not all systems described are studied in depth; for those that have been, greater detail is given. Keywords: Atwood's pendulum; Periodic motion; Dynamics. (JES)