Day 43: Big Test and Cantilevering

The test was long today, but after the test, we had a little time to talk about cantilevering. I took a meterstick and let the first 30 centimeters of it hang off the edge. I then took a mass with a hook on it and hung it at the 25-centimeter mark. The meterstick didn't move. It was still in both translational and rotational equilibrium. We moved the mass farther and farther from the edge of the table, until, finally, the meterstick started to tip. I told them the mass of the the mass with a hook on it and then asked "What is the mass of the meterstick?" We'll play with this setup more tomorrow.