What is an equilibrium in physics?
In: 5
Let’s say I have a rock tried to a string. If I hold up the string letting the rock dangle, it’s in equilibrium. The rock is being pulled down by gravity as hard as it’s being pulled up by the string, resulting in a rock that doesn’t accelerate. If I push the rock to one side, it will swing back and forth through that equilibrium point because the string is pulling it sideways whenever it is not pointing straight up and down. As a result, the forces don’t cancel out, causing acceleration. Eventually friction will slow the rock down and it will stop in that equilibrium point. This is a stable equilibrium.
An unstable equilibrium would be like balancing a pencil upright on your finger. When the pencil is perfectly upright, it will stand, but the slightest jostle will make it fall over. It’s in equilibrium, but there’s no restoring force to bring it back there.
It can be more than forces too. Anything that tries to change a system can be canceled out by something trying to.cause the opposite of that change.
Latest Answers