Atwood’s Machine Lab 

Participants  

James S., Malachi W., John G., Valentino P.B., Chris M., Lorynn T.  

Background: ​For this experiment it will determine Newton's second law of 

the acceleration of two masses connected by a string that passes over a pulley. At 

the beginning of our lab, we were given four run(s) problems with a first mass and a 

second mass. Our goal was to find the acceleration for reach run. Now for the last 

run we had a choice to choose our own two masses to solve for. We worked as a 

team no more than three people and established certain jobs for each one. Person 

one would write the equation on the board while person two would run each 

simulation on a website called Atwood’s Machine which would determine 

acceleration change. The third person would then calculate the equation to make 

sure with the group.  

Purpose: ​For this experiment it would be to get accurate measurements of the 

gravitational pull, since it will determine the acceleration of two masses.   

Hypothesis: ​I believe that the bigger mass will fall quicker than the smaller mass, 

when we run the experiment on the Atwood’s machine.  

 
Variables: ​Weights & Gravity  

Materials​: ​A whiteboard with an erasable marker, computer for Atwood’s machine 

website, and a calculator. Atwood’s Machine in classroom.  

Methods: ​ At first we didn’t check the system before we started our lab and we 

weren’t looking at the slope of the velocity-time graph or knew that it was even the 

acceleration. We kept getting different answers but were doing the steps correctly.   

Conclusions:​ Now some of our measurements were wrong because the Lab 

program was reading it was 5 cm long when in reality it was only half a centimeter, 

that’s why some of our measurement solutions were incorrect, check the system 

before you start the lab. Also, make sure you look at the slope of the velocity-time 

graph which will be the acceleration.  

 
 The data from the group’s two masses measures by an 

Atwood's Machine.  

This is our work for the three acceleration problems we were tasked with.