In order to do this, we placed the weight on the very end of the meter stick and then balanced the meter stick on the edge of a table. When something is balanced, it means that its clockwise and counterclockwise torques are balanced. Because torque = force x lever arm, the force x lever arm of the right side equaled the force x lever arm of the left side.
On the left side we have the 100g weight. The force of this will be the mass of this weight multiplied by the force of gravity, 9.8. The force on the left is 980. The meter stick was balanced at the 30 centimeter point making the lever arm 30 cm.
On the right side, we do not know what the force is. The lever arm is from the point of balancing to the center of gravity of the entire stick which is at 50 cm. The lever arm of the right is 20cm long.
Our equation is 980 x 30 = x x 20. We solved using algebra to get...
1470. the decimal point must be moved over to convert it back into grams.
The mass is 1.47g.
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