- #1
kirakun
- 25
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Homework Statement
Well actually we were doing a beam experiment in class. It consisted of varying the position of a load and measuring the reactions to eventually analyse the relationship between the distance of load from 1 support with the 2 reactions.
The reactions were provided by two spring balances acting as supports and the readings were noted (In the diagrams I put the spring balance reactions as VA and VB respectively)
My confusion:
As we moved the position of the load, the beam started to incline, we were told to make the beam horizontal before taking any readings. I did not understand why and I still don't. So i decided to make calculations to see if re-aligning was necessary.
Please take a look at the calculations
Eventually i end up with VA and VB being identical in magnitudes.
So i conclude that whether the beam is inclined or not, the readings should have been the same.
However the readings when the beam is inclined and when it is not were not the same.
My understanding is that the springs extended more during inclination and lead to change in readings.
However I think that if we had inclined all the beams by the same angle and varied the load positions, the trend compared with those when the beam was kept horizontal would have been the same.
I would be grateful if you guys could help me out.
Thank you for your time and patience.
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