"An inclined plane at an angle of 25 degrees to the horizontal has a pulley at its top. A 30kg block on the plane is connected to a freely hanging 20kg block by means of a cord passing over the pulley. From rest how far will the 20kg block fall in 2s?

For the 20kg block choose downward as positive and for the 30kg block choose the x axis along the incline as positive.Apply Newton's second law of motion to each block separately.The pulley is frictionless and the tension is the same on either side of the pulley. We can eliminate tension from the two equations of motion and solve to find the acceleration of the 20kg block. Using this acceleration we can calculate distance travelled in 2 seconds using the appropriate 'suvat' equation.

JW
Answered by Joni W. Physics tutor

5147 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

If the highest frequency a song is 10 kHz and it is encoded at 16 bits per sample what is the minimum number of bytes needed to encode the 3 minute song?


A man weighing 600N steps on a scale that contains a spring. The spring is compressed 1cm under their weight. Find the force constant of the spring and total work done on its compression.


An electron is traveling at a velocity of 500m/s perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field. A force of magnitude 4.32 x10^(-16) N is acting on the electron, what is the magnetic flux density of the field?


What do you understand by simple harmonic motion?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning