hi, if anyone could give me any sort of help on how to solve this problem i would greatly appreciate it. thank you.

Question

A 2.66 kg object placed on a frictionless horizontal table is connected to a string that passes over a pulley and then is fastened to a hanging 8.39 kg object. Find the magnitude of the acceleration of the two objects.

Answer 1

Let M1 be the mass on the table and M2 be the mass hanging from the pulley. Let T be the tension force in the cable that connects them. Both masses accelerate at the same rate a, but in different directions.

Solve this pair of equations. There are two unknowns, a and T.

M1 g - T = M1 a
T = M2 a

Add the two equations to elimimate T
M1 g = (M1 + M2) a
Solve for a.

Answer 2

thanks for your help drwls.