Chapter 2 : 1-D Kinematics:Velocity & acceleration.

Updated 9/6/06 Try to do as many problems as you can, emphasizing the ones we do in class. There always will be more problems than many of you can do, and there will be some very challenging problems toward the end of the set. Do your best, ask questions, use the problems to learn!! 1. a) Clearly explain the difference between position and displacement, giving examples. Explain why you need to read carefully when the term "distance" appears in a problem. b) Clearly distinguish between the concepts of instantaneous and average velocity giving examples. During what type of motion are these two the same? c) Clearly explain the difference between instantaneous velocity, change in velocity and acceleration. Give examples that illustrate the difference. d) Distinguish between constant velocity, constant acceleration, and non-constant acceleration. Illustrate with examples. e) Distinguish between +acceleration and acceleration. Also distinguish between acceleration and deceleration. 2. Sketch rough graphs of position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time for the following cases of constant acceleration: (This is preparation for the lab Graphing Constant Acceleration.) a) a=0, v>0; and also a=0, v<0; b) a>0, vo>0; and also a>0, vo<0; c) a<0, vo>0; and also a<0, vo<0 d) In which of the cases above was the speed increasing?...speed decreasing? e) In which of the cases above can the object turn around? f) Is it possible for the speed to be zero and the acceleration to be non-zero at any time? Explain. 3. The following chart presents a number of motion scenarios (a though g) for which either a verbal description or a graphical description (either position, or velocity, or acceleration vs. time) is given. Fill in the missing graphs or verbal description for each case. Ignore any points of abrupt change. Assume that any initial position or velocity not given is zero. a) Description b) A car is moving with constant velocity, then it accelerates to a higher constant velocity. c) d) e) A mass hanging from a spring is moving up and down. f) A ball is tossed upwards, it rises in the air and returns to the ground.

x vs. t v vs. t a vs. t

4. A motion diagram is an illustration showing the velocity and acceleration vectors of the moving object. Draw motion diagrams for cases (b), (c), & (e) in the problem above. a) Draw enough instantaneous velocity vectors at equal time intervals to clearly illustrate each case. b) Draw change in velocity vectors for each time interval and then draw acceleration vectors for each time interval. Ignore the points of abrupt change.

5. An equation of motion describes algebraically how the motion of an object depends on time. Write equations of motion describing cases (d), (e), & (f) above, that is : a) Write the equation of position vs. time [x(t)] for each case. b) Write the equation of velocity vs. time [v(t)] for each case. c) Write the equation of acceleration vs. time [a(t)] for each case. 6. When an object changes its motion abruptly in a short amount of time (as we have seen in many examples) we ignore the short time intervals for the sake of simplicity and because they are negligible compared to the longer intervals of motion. These abrupt changes often are drawn as a sharp angle or broken line in the motion graphs. Explain why such abrupt changes are impossible in the real world. 7. There are two formulas that we can use to determine average velocity: vave=x/t or vave=(vi + vf)/2. a) Which one of these formulas is always correct (by definition) and which formula is only correct under certain conditions? What are the limitations of the other formula. b) A car travels 12 miles using two different constant speeds. The car travels half the distance with a speed of 10 mph and the other half distance with a speed of 30 mph. Determine the average speed. c) The car travels the same 12 miles back but this time the driver spends half the total time of the trip traveling at 10 mph and the other half time traveling at 30 mph. Determine the average speed in the return trip. d) Sketch position vs. time graphs for both trips. Which trip took longer (b) or (c)? e) If you changed your speed gradually from 10 mph to 30 mph during the 12 miles trip, which of the two cases above would have the same average velocity? f) Prove (or give a logical argument) that the half-time average velocity will always be faster than the half-distance average velocity. 8. A car (A) is waiting for the red light to change at an intersection.When the light changes the car accelerates at a rate of 1 m/s2. At the moment that car begins to move a second car (B) passes it going at a constant speed of 8 m/s. a) If neither car changes its motion, how soon will it take for car A to match the speed of car B? Which car is ahead at that time? b) If neither car changes its motion, how soon will it take for car A to overtake car B? Which car is moving faster at that time? How far from the entrance of the intersection does this happen? c) Draw graphs of position and velocity vs. time for the two cars. Make sure your graphs agree with the answers to (a) and (b). d) If car A stops accelerating after 12 seconds, when will it overtake B? At what location will this happen? 9. A man is running to catch a bus at his top speed of 6 m/s. The man is 25 m behind the bus when the bus starts to pull away from the curve with an acceleration of 1 m/s2. a) Will the man catch the bus? If yes, find out when and where it happens. If no, determine how close he got to the bus and the minimum speed he needed catch it. b) Draw a position graph that includes both the motion of the man and the bus in the same scale. c) Repeat the problem assuming that the bus is accelerating at a rate of 0.5 m/s2. 10. A student tosses a ball upwards and it rises high above his head. You can assume g= 10 m/s2. a) Roughly compare the average acceleration of the ball while in the hand to the acceleration of the ball after it leaves the hand. Which acceleration is higher in magnitude? Do they have the same directions? b) Assume the ball moves 1 meter upward while in the hand, and that, when it leaves the hand of the thrower, it is 2 m above the ground and is moving with an initial speed upwards of 12 m/s. Draw graphs of position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time for the motion of the ball. Assume air resistance is negligible. c) How long is the ball in contact with the hand? How long is the ball in free-fall? d) How fast is the ball moving when it impacts the ground?

e) Repeat the problem reversing the direction of + and - in your solution. Verify that this does not change the value of the answers. 11. We often ignore air resistance for the sake of simplicity. The air produces an acceleration that opposes the motion and, that in addition, depends on the speed of the object itself (the greater the speed the greater the effect of air resistance). Consider the motion of the ball in free-fall in the problem above, but now lets consider the effect of air resistance in a qualitative way. a) Show how the shape of the graphs of motion in the problem above would change as a result of air resistance. Do not worry about numerical values; concentrate on the overall shape of the graphs. Explain the changes you made. b) How does the time going up compare to the time coming down the same distance in the case of nonnegligible air resistance? Justify your answer. 12. A balloon is rising with a constant speed of 5 m/s. It carries a basket with a person inside. When the balloon is a 120 m above the ground the person holds an object outside the basket and lets it go. a) Describe the motion of the object as seen by a person on the ground and as seen by the person in the balloons basket. b) What maximum height does the object rise above the ground? c) How long does it take the object to reach its maximum height? ...to hit the ground? d) How fast is it going when it hits the ground? e) If the person had thrown the object down ward with a speed of 10 m/s relative to the balloon (instead of merely letting go), how long would the object take to hit the ground in that case? 13. A ball is thrown straight upwards with a velocity vo. At the same time a ball is dropped from a height H above the ground. Determine answers in terms of H, g, and vo. a) At what time do the balls cross paths? b) Suppose vo= 5 m/s and H= 6 m. Where would the balls cross paths? c) In terms of vo and g, derive an expression for the maximum possible value of H that will allow the balls to cross paths above the ground. 14. A man is trying to lift a weight using various rope and pulley set-ups as illustrated below. Assume that the man is pulling his end of the rope with a speed vo. This problem is not so important in this chapter but will become more important in future chapters. a) For each set-up determine the speed at which the weight rises. Explain your reasoning clearly. b) If the man is accelerating his end of the rope at a rate "a", at what rate is the weight accelerating in each case. (i) (ii)
vo

(iii) v

vo

15. An elevator has a height of 3 m. While the elevator is moving a bolt inside the elevator drops from the ceiling to the floor. Determine the time it takes for the bolt to hit the elevator floor in the following cases. a) The elevator is moving up with a constant speed of 1 m/s. b) The elevator is accelerating down at a rate of 2 m/s2 and the speed of the elevator is up 1 m/s at the instant the bolt comes loose. c) Describe the motion of the bolt in (b) as seen by an observer on the ground....as seen by an observer inside the elevator. d) Solve problem (b) using the frame of reference of the observer inside the elevator and show that the answer is the same.

e) Repeat the problem assuming that the elevator is accelerating up at a rate of 2 m/s2 and the speed of the elevator is up 1 m/s at the instant the bolt comes loose. 16. The breaks are applied to a car traveling with speed vo and it comes to a stop in a distance "d". We assume that the acceleration due to the breaks is constant for this car regardless of speed. a) If the initial speed had been 2vo, how much longer would it take the car to stop? b) In driving school they teach that you should allow one car length of stopping distance for every 10 mph of speed of your car. Is this consistent with a constant deceleration from your brakes? Explain. c) In reality one has to allow for the "reaction time" that it takes before the foot hits the brakes. During this time the car moves through a "reaction distance" at the initial constant velocity and this adds to the "braking distance" to make up the total "stopping distance". The following table gives typical values: Initial speed (m/s) 10 20 30 Reaction distance (m) 7.5 15 22.5 Braking distance (m) 5.0 20 45 Stopping distance (m) 12.5 35 67.5

What is the "reaction time" implied by the data in the chart above? What is the acceleration generated by the brakes? Is the acceleration constant? d) Determine the cars stopping distance if the initial speed of the driver is 25 m/s? 17. A block slides over a rough patch of surface 40 cm long. When it enters the patch the speed of block is 12 cm/s and when it emerges its speed is 6 cm/s. a) Determine the time the block spends moving over the rough patch. b) Determine the acceleration of the block. c) How much larger would the patch have to be in order to stop the block altogether (assume acceleration is the same). d) A second block enters the patch 1 s later moving with velocity 15 cm/s, will it overtake the first block within the patch? Assume both blocks have the same acceleration moving over the rough patch. 18. A train is traveling from station A to station B a distance D away. Starting at A the train first accelerates uniformly to a maximum speed vmax then it decelerates uniformly to come to a stop at B. The train spends twice as much time decelerating as it spends accelerating. a) Draw graph of position, velocity and acceleration vs. time for the entire trip. b) Determine the average speed during acceleration, ...during deceleration,...and overall. c) Determine the time for the complete trip in terms of vmax and D. d) Determine the accelerations. e) Would it have changed the overall time for the trip if the train had accelerated more quickly initially to the maximum speed and then taken longer to some to a stop? Justify your answer. Problems below require calculus to solve: 19. Air resistance always opposes the motion and depends on the velocity of the object. It also depends on some of the physical properties of the air (like its density) and of the object (such as its shape). If all the physical properties that affect air resistance are combined into a single constant "C", the acceleration due to air resistance can be written as a = -Cv2(i) (where i here indicates the direction of the velocity). a) Explain the meaning of the negative sign in this formula. b) Derive a function of the velocity as a function of time due to air resistance on an object with initial speed vo. Graph this function. Compare to the example of fluid resistance done in class. c) How long would it take the object to slow down to half its initial velocity?to come to rest? d) The acceleration due to gravity can make an object "turn around" in free-fall. Can air resistance alone make an object "turn around? Justify your answer.

20. Review the proof of the kinematics formula for position under a constant acceleration [x = at2/2 + vot + xo] which was done in class. Then proceed to proof the kinematics formula without time [2ax = v2-vo2]. Hint: Rewrite the definition of acceleration with the help of the chain rule as: a=dv/dt= (dv/dx)(dx/dt)]. Set up the appropriate integral and solve. 21. Galileo, who gave us our basic definition of acceleration, noticed that objects moving under the effect of gravity traveled "odd multiples of distance in successive time intervals". This means that if an object falls a distance "x" in a time "t" from rest , it would fall a distance "3x" during the next t interval and "5x" the time interval after thatetc. a) Show that this is consistent with our kinematics formula x=gt2/2 + vot. b) Show that this is consistent with the meaning of a constant acceleration. c) Galileo had considered defining acceleration as a=dv/dx instead of dv/dt. Derive a kinematics formula for position vs. time for the case in which a=dv/dx is a constant.