I worked with Irene and Amaris in a group to make a Winter Wonderland themed project using equilibrium concepts. In this Equilibrium project, my group and I created a balancing act on a clothing hanger including different materials/components, including a present, snowflakes, and snowmen.

We were successful in creating a balance so that, after considering the centre of gravity, the total anticlockwise torque equals the clockwise torque. Although the overall left and right masses are somewhat different (0.1014 kg vs. 0.0951 kg), the hanger maintains its balance because of the difference in distance to the fulcrum. To account for the mass difference, we were able to determine that the centre of gravity is 0.00375m to the left.

The two snowmen differed by 0.01g, which looked like too little to make a difference, but the grammes kept shifting each time we attempted to measure them on the scale. However, the wrong equipment or technique used to measure the mass could be the cause of mistake. It is possible that they were each slightly off, which would have prevented that part of our project from being perfectly balanced even though technically it makes sense for them to be equal in mass and distance.