Chapter 1 Problems

1.3 The micrometer is often called the micron. (a) How man microns make up 1 km? (b) What
fraction of a centimeter equals 1µ m ? (c) How many microns are in 1.0 yard

We begin by calculating 1 km in microns

1000m 1micron
d = 1.0km ⋅ ⋅ −6 = 1×10 9 microns
1km 1×10 m

Now calculate a distance of 1 micron in cm.

1×10 −6 m 100cm
d = 1micron ⋅ ⋅ = 1×10−4 cm
1micron 1m

Finally we compute a distance of 1 yard in microns.

3 ft 0.3048m 1micron
d = 1yd ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ −6 = 9.144 × 105 microns
1yd 1 ft 1× 10 m

1.5 The Earth is approximately a sphere of radius 6.37 x 106 m. (a) What is is its circumference
in kilometers? (b) What is its surface area in square kilometers? (c) What is its volume in cubic
kilometers?

To do all three sections of this problem, we can first convert the radius to kilometers.

1km
r = 6.37 × 10 6 m ⋅ = 6.37 × 103 km
1000m
(a) The formula for circumference can be found in most calculus books (and in Appendix E of
your Physics text). We will assume that we are finding the circumference of the equator.

c = 2π r = 2π ⋅ 6.37 ×10 3 km = 4.002 × 104 km

(b) The surface area of a sphere is:

a = 4π r 2 = 4 π ⋅ (6.37 × 103 km)2 = 5.099 × 108 km 2

(c) The volume of a sphere is:

4 4
v = π r3 = π ⋅(6.37 × 103 km)3 = 1.083 × 101 2 km3
3 3

1.7 Antarctica is roughly semicircular, with a radius of 2000 km. The average thickness of its ice
cover is 3000m. How many cubic centimeters of ice does Antarctica contain? (Ignore the curvature
of the earth) (Corrected)
 r=2000m
3000m

We find the volume in cubic meters first and then convert.

Volume = (Area of half circle) ⋅ (depth)

π r2
= ⋅d
2
π (2000 ×10 3 m)2
= ⋅ 3000m = 1.885 ×1016 m3
2
100cm 3
= 1.885 ×1016 m 3 ⋅ ( )
1m
= 1.885 ×10 22 cm 3
1.9 Hydraulic engineers often use, as a unit of volume of water, the acre-foot, defined a the volume
of water that will cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 ft. A severe thunderstorm dumps 2.0 inches of
rain in 30 min. on a town of area 26 km2. What volume of water in acre-feet, fell on the town?

We first convert the depth to feet and the area to acres.

1ft
d = 2.0in ⋅ = 0.1667 ft
12in
1000m 2 2.471acres
a = 26km2 ⋅( ) ⋅ 4 2
= 6.4245 × 10 3 acres
1km 10 m
Volume = a ⋅ d = 6.4245 × 10 acres⋅ 0.1667 ft
3

= 1.071 × 103 acre ft

1.11 A fortnight is a charming English measure of time equal to 2.0 weeks (the word is a
contraction of “fourteen nights”). That is a nice amount of time in pleasant company but perhaps
a painful string of microseconds in unpleasant company. How many microseconds are in a
fortnight.

14days 24h 3600s 1µs

# micros = 1  fortnight ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ −6 = 1.2096 × 10
12

1  fortnight 1d 1h 10 s

1.14 Until 1883, eery city and town in the United states kept its own local time. Today, travelers
reset their watches only when the time change equals 1 hour (or more). How far, on average, must
you travel in degrees of longitude until your watch must be reset by 1 h? (Hint: Earth rotates 360
degrees in 24 h.)

360° x
=
24h 1h
360
x= ° = 15°
24
1.18 Because Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing, the length of each day increases: The day at
the end of the 1.0 century is 1.0 ms longer than the day at the start of the century. In 20 centuries,
what is the total of the daily increases in time (that is, the sum of the gain on the first day, the gain
on the second day)

See class notes.

1.21 Earth has a mass of 5.98 × 10 24 kg . The average mass of the atoms that make up the earth is
40 u. How many atoms are there in the earth.

To proceed, we need to find the conversion of atomic mass units (u) to kilograms.

1 u = 1.661 × 10 −27 kg

We can now proceed

mEarth = # atoms ⋅avg. mass of each atom

mEarth
# atoms =
avg. mass of each atom
5.98 × 1024 kg
=
1.661× 10−27 kg
40u ⋅
1u
= 9 × 10 49

1.24 One cubic centimeter of a typical cumulus cloud contains 50 to 500 water drops, which have a
typical radius of 10 microns. For that range, give the lower value and the higher values, respectively,
for the following. (as) How many cubic meters of water are in a cylindrical cumulus cloud of
height 3.0 km and radius 1.0 km. (b) How many 1-liter pop bottles would that water fill? (c)
Water has a mass of 1000 kg per cubic meter of volume. How much mass does the water in the
cloud have?

We will calculate the lower number first. The higher values will be 10 times larger since the
number of drops is 10 times higher.

a) We are told that the cloud is a cylinder. We begin by calculating the volume of the cloud in
cubic cm. This will require us to convert the cloud dimensions to cm.
 1000m 100cm
rcloud = 1km ⋅ ⋅ = 1× 105 cm
1km 1m
1000m 100 cm
hcloud = 3km ⋅ ⋅ = 3× 105 cm
1km 1m
Vcloud = π r2 h = π ⋅(1 × 10 5 cm)2 ⋅ 3× 105 cm = 9.42 × 1015 cm 3
# drops
Vwater in cloud = Vcloud ⋅ ⋅V
cm 3 of cloud drop
50drops 4
Vwater in cloud = 9.42 × 1015 cm 3 ⋅ 3
⋅ π (10 × 10−6 m)3
cm 3
= 1972.9 m 3

The upper limit would be 19729 m3

b. We can find the number of 1 L pop-bottles by converting the volume of water to L. The
number of L will be the number of bottles.

1m3 = 1000L
1000L
Vwater in cloud = 1972.9m3 ⋅ 3
= 1.9729 × 10 6 L
1m
The upper limit is 1.9729 × 10 7 L .

c We can now compute the mass of water in the cloud.

1000kg
m = Vwater incloud ⋅ ρ water = 1972.9m 3 ⋅ 3 = 1.9729 × 106 kg
1m

The upper limit is 1.9729 × 10 7 kg .

1.33 Grains of fine California beach sand are approximately spheres with an average radius of 50
mm; They are made of silicon dioxide, 1 m3 of which has a mass of 2600 kg. What mass of sand
grains would have a total surface area equal to the surface area of a cube 1m on edge?

asand = 4π r2 = 4π ⋅ (50 × 10−6 m)2 = 3.14 × 10 −8 m2

acube = 6l 2 = 6 ⋅ (1m) 2 = 6m2
2600kg kg
ρ(density) = 3 = 2600 3
1m m
Now we compute the number of grains of sand

acube = (# grains)⋅ asand

acube 6m2
# grains = = −8 2
= 1.91 × 108
asand 3.14 × 10 m
Knowing the number of grains, we can use the density to compute the mass.

m = (# grains ⋅ Volumegrain )⋅ ρ
4 kg
= 1.91× 108 ⋅ π (50 ×10 −6 m) 3 ⋅ 2600 3
3 m
= 2.6 × 10 kg
−1

1.36 Suppose that, while lying on the beach near the equator watching the Sun set over a calm
ocean, you start a stopwatch just as the top of the Sun disappears. You then stand, elevating your
eyes by a height h=1.7m, and stop the watch when the top of the Sun again disappears If the
elapsed time is 11.1s, what is the radius of the earth.

Getting the picture is critical for doing this problem. We are trying to find h. To proceed, we find
the angle that the earth turns through in 11.1 s.

re h
θ
re

This is the angle in the picture.

θ 360°
=
11.1s 24hrs ⋅ 60min/ hr ⋅ 60sec/ min
θ = 4.625 ×10−2 °

We now use some geometry to find h

re
cosθ =
re + h
(re + h)cos θ = re
hcosθ = re − re cos θ
hcos θ 1.7m ⋅ cos(4.625 ×10−2 )
re = = −2
= 5.22 ×10 6 m
1− cosθ 1− cos(4.625 ×10 )

This isn’t a great value, but not bad for lying on the beach.
1.40 One molecule of water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. A
hydrogen atom has a mass of 1.0 u and an atom oxygen has a mass of 16 u, approximately.
(a)What is the mass in kilograms of one molecule of water. (b) How many molecules of water in
the worlds oceans which have an estimated total mass of 1.4 × 10 21 kg .
1 u = 1.661 × 10 −27 kg

a) Mass of water molecule

mwater molecule = 2 ⋅ mH + 1⋅ mO = 2 ⋅1u + 1⋅16u = 18u

1.661× 10−27 kg
= 18u ⋅
1u
= 2.9898 × 10−26 kg

b) We can now calculate the number of molecules.

mass
mocean = # molecules⋅
molecule
mocean 1.4 × 1021 kg
# molecules = = = 4.683 × 10 46
mass 2.9898 × 10 −26

molecule

1.48 What mass of water fell on the town in problem 9

Let’s calculate the volume of water in MKS units and then find mass.

2.54cm 1m −2
d = 2in ⋅ ⋅ = 5.08 × 10 m
1in 100cm
2
⎛ 1000m ⎞
A = 26 km ⋅ ⎜ = 2.6 × 10 m
2 7

⎝ 1km ⎟⎠
−2
V = A ⋅d = 2.6 × 10 m ⋅ 5.08 × 10 m = 1.32 × 10 m
7 6 3

1000kg
m = V ⋅ ρ = 1.32 × 10 6 m3 ⋅ 3
= 1.32 × 10 9 kg
1m

1.54 During heavy rain, a section of a mountainside measuring 2.5 km horizontally, 0.8 km up
along the slope and 2.0 m deep slips into a valley in a mud slide. Assume that the mud ends up
uniformly disturbed over a surface area of the valley measuring 0.4 km x 0.40 km and that the mass
of a cubic meter of mud is 1900 kg. What is the mass of the mud sitting above a 4.0 sq m area of
the valley floor.

We begin by computing the total volume of mud.

 V = 2500m × 800m × 2m = 4,000,000m 3

Now we compute the depth of the mud in the valley. The volume remains constant.

V = 400m × 400m × d
V
d= = 25m
400m × 400m
Now that we know the depth, we can compute the volume of mud sitting above 4 sq. m.

V ′ = 4m2 ⋅ 25m = 100m3

And the mass

1900 kg
m = ρV ′ = ⋅100m3 = 190,000kg
m3

1.58 (a) A unit of time sometimes used in microscopic physics is the shake. One shake equals
10-8 s. Are there more shakes in a second than there are seconds in a year? (b) Humans have
existed for about 106 years whereas the universe is about 1010 years old. If the age of the universe
is taken to be 1 “universe day”, where a universe day consists of “universe seconds” as a normal
day consists of normal seconds, how many “universe seconds” have humans existed?

(a) Compute the number of shakes in a second and the number of seconds in a year.

1s
# s in a shake = −8 = 10 8
10 s / shake
365.25days 24hrs 3600s
# s in a year = 1yr ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ = 3.156 × 107
1yr 1day 1hr
There are more shakes in a second than seconds in a year.

(b) We set up a ratio to do this problem

x 106 yrs(human existence)

=
1universe day 1010 yrs(universe)
x = 10−4 universe day
24 universe hours 3600universe sec
= 10−4 universe day ⋅ ⋅
1universe day 1universe hour
= 8.64 universe sec