I am the OP : ' D (insert Palpatine meme)
P.S. Yes totally agreed, hence my best guess is Chestermiller's idea of assuming the external pressure is roughly constant at 1 atm.
I think the same motive applies in a problem where you throw a rock off a certain height, and need to calculate the change in entropy of the universe as a result. Even if you say that the rock and the surface that it falls down into are at the same temperature, the kinetic energy of the rock is...
I sure don't, haha. From the first law of thermodynamics the final answer depends on the work done by the cyllinder's piston. The difference between the work and the energy needed to melt the ice will be turned into heat and transferred to the heat bath. And I don't see why that amount should be...
In which case work would just be change in volume * 1 atm, right?
I guess it just appeared counter-intuitive that you may assume p to be 1 atm if the cyllinder compresses in the first place.
You can use the change in volume to find how much ice turned into water, and then find the energy required to melt that ice - that I have no problems with.
But then work done by piston = change in internal energy of ice/water combination (which we found) + heat released to the bath.
And we...
Yes, it is. It's not the radius of the rod, though. We need a force with which the rod acts on the cylinders. Like I said, if the rod's radius and the cylinders' radii were equal, then at least we could calculate the torsion force some distance away from the axis of rotation...
Assuming one of us has solved the system of equations correctly (it's probably you guys), of what use is the quantity T/R? I guess if the rod were of the same radius as the cylinder, one could calculate the 'tension' at a certain distance away from the axis. The rod is obviously of a different...
In the language that the problem was written in, it strictly says to find a force.
However, if we imply that the rod with torsion creates a torque on the cylinders (one along the direction of rotation, the other against the direction of rotation), then I think we can find a quantity T / R...
Indeed it should, and while I did sound quite unappreciative of your help, I am very thankful for your input. It's just that your conceptual advice hasn't quite made me understand this problem to the point where I could see a way to describe everything mathematically, and I hoped you could help...
What you said all sounds nice and straight-forward, but I only know the masses and the angle of incline. I do not know the trajectory, I only drew a rough sketch of it. And for clarity, could you add in the equations that arise from your claims? Without the equations, what you are saying does...
First of all, there is friction - static friction. It does not do any work but it exists nonetheless. To answer the question about the centripetal force - it's a good point, but how else would the cylinders roll without skidding if they didnt follow the same trajectory?
I now think there's a...