A Simple Demonstration for the Static Ladder Problem

Mario Belloni

Citation: Phys. Teach. 46, 503 (2008); doi: 10.1119/1.2999069

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2999069
View Table of Contents: http://tpt.aapt.org/resource/1/PHTEAH/v46/i8
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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 A Simple Demonstration
for the Static Ladder
Problem
Mario Belloni, Davidson College, Davidson, NC

I
n the teaching of statics, the ladder problem is equilibrium and to determine where these forces act.
a standard two-dimensional exercise. If students Static friction is the likely force, but where does it act?
can understand how to set up this problem, they There are two possibilities: at the contact point be-
can solve almost any other two-dimensional problem. tween the ground and the ladder and the contact point
Solving this or any other statics problem requires iden- between the wall and the ladder. From the free-body
tifying the forces (such that F = 0) and where they diagram it is clear that the frictional force between the
act, and determining the length of the moment arm ground and the ladder is necessary to counteract the
and the angle between the moment arm and the force force of the wall on the ladder, but the frictional force
(such that t = 0). In teaching the ladder problem
we begin with a simple diagram of the leaning ladder
and ask the students to identify the forces on the lad-
der and where they act. Students will readily identify
three forces: the ladder’s weight (mg), the normal force
of the ground on the ladder, N, and the force of the
wall on the ladder, Fwall, as shown in Fig. 1.
The next step is to identify if other forces are
necessary to maintain translational and rotational

Fwall

N
Fig. 2. Photograph of the appa-
ratus shown in the configura-
θ mg tion that demonstrates that
the frictional force between
Fig. 1. Incomplete free-body diagram for the the wall and the ladder is not
ladder problem. necessary for static equilib-
rium.

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 46, November 2008

2008 DOI: 10.1119/1.2999069 503

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 between the wall and the ladder is not necessary for
equilibrium.
To show this in the classroom, we have created a
simple, inexpensive demonstration for those teachers
without the money or storage space for a full-sized lad-
der.1 The demonstration consists of a meterstick and a
low-friction pulley attached to one end of the meter-
stick. The pulley can be clamped or glued in place
depending on the availability of metersticks and pul-
leys. Leaning the meterstick with the pulley against
the wall mimics the case of no frictional force between
the wall and the ladder. In this scenario, the meterstick
is in equilibrium for ladder angles, q, that are larger
than the critical angle. Leaning the meterstick with
the pulley on the ground mimics the case of no fric-
tional force between the ground and the ladder. In this
scenario, the meterstick is not in equilibrium for any
value of q and the meterstick will slide to the floor.
When teaching a particular topic, we often like to
combine the three areas of physics: theory (as in the
body of this paper), experiment (the demonstration),
and computation. As a consequence we have created
a computer simulation that models the statics and
dynamics of the textbook ladder problem. This simu-
lation was created with Easy Java Simulations2 and is
freely available on the Open Source Physics (OSP)
Collection on comPADRE 3 by searching for “tpt lad-
der.”
References
1. E. Zwicker, “Ladder physics,” Phys. Teach. 26, 532–535
(Nov. 1988).
2. W. Christian and F. Esquembre, “Modeling Physics
with easy Java simulations,” Phys. Teach. 45, 475–480
(Nov. 2007).
3. http://www.compadre.org/osp.
PACS codes: 01.50.My, 45.00.00

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