Meter Stick Blog

In this class we had to find the mass of a meterstick without using a scale. Our only tools were an 100g lead weight and a meterstick. Our initial plan was to put the meter stick on the edge of the table and put the weight on the other end and calculate where the meter stick was at that point. We knew that we would have to use the formulas: torque=9Lever arm)(force), and that the torque with the weight would need to equal the torgue without wait (this references colockwise=counterclockwise). We then figured out at that the lever arm force=25.5, center of mass=49. We then went on to begin to solve some equations that would lead us to the mass of the meterstick. Torque with weight=(25.5)(.98)=24.9, lever arm=49.5-25.5--> lever arm=24. We then went on t set 24 times force equal to 24.9. 24.9/24=f. then with the answer to that equation we set it equal to 9.8, and the answer we got was .106, but we then had to move the decimal place over three spaces to the right. The actual mass of the meter stick was about 100.5, therefore we were only off by around 5.