Halliday, Resnick & Walker — Force and Motion-I: Problem 65

65 Figure 5-37 shows Atwood’s machine, in which two containers are connected by a cord (of negligible mass) passing over a frictionless pulley (also of negligible mass). At time \(t = 0\), container 1 has mass 1.30 kg and container 2 has mass 2.80 kg, but container 1 is losing mass (through a leak) at the constant rate of 0.200 kg/s. At what rate is the acceleration magnitude of the containers changing at (a) \(t = 0\) and (b) \(t = 3.00 \text{ s}\)? (c) When does the acceleration reach its maximum value?