An atwood machine consists of two masses m1 and m2 (with m1 > m2) attached to the ends of a light string that passes over a light, frictionless pulley. when the masses are released, the mass m1 is easily shown to accelerate down with an acceleration a = g ((m1 − m2) / ( m1 + m2))
1. suppose that m1 and m2 are measured as m1 = 100 ± 1 gram and m2 = 50 ± 1 gram. derive a formula of the uncertainty in the expected acceleration in terms of the masses and their uncertainties, and then calculate for the given numbers.