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    Problem Set 2: Warmups

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    DevendraReddyPoreddy
    This document provides the problems for Problem Set 2. Students are instructed to turn in solutions to Problems 3 through 5 by Wednesday. Problem 3 asks to estimate the size of the US diaper market. Problem 4 asks to estimate two integrals by replacing curves with rectangles. Problem 5 asks how many seconds per day a pendulum clock would lose depending on the starting angle. An optional bonus Problem 6 asks to guess the functional form of the period of a pendulum for a starting angle near π.

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    Problem Set 2: Warmups

    Uploaded by

    DevendraReddyPoreddy
    23 views1 page
    This document provides the problems for Problem Set 2. Students are instructed to turn in solutions to Problems 3 through 5 by Wednesday. Problem 3 asks to estimate the size of the US diaper market. Problem 4 asks to estimate two integrals by replacing curves with rectangles. Problem 5 asks how many seconds per day a pendulum clock would lose depending on the starting angle. An optional bonus Problem 6 asks to guess the functional form of the period of a pendulum for a starting angle near π.

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    This document provides the problems for Problem Set 2. Students are instructed to turn in solutions to Problems 3 through 5 by Wednesday. Problem 3 asks to estimate the size of the US diaper market. Problem 4 asks to estimate two integrals by replacing curves with rectangles. Problem 5 asks how many seconds per day a pendulum clock would lose depending on the starting angle. An optional bonus Problem 6 asks to guess the functional form of the period of a pendulum for a starting angle near π.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    23 views1 page

    Problem Set 2: Warmups

    Uploaded by

    DevendraReddyPoreddy
    This document provides the problems for Problem Set 2. Students are instructed to turn in solutions to Problems 3 through 5 by Wednesday. Problem 3 asks to estimate the size of the US diaper market. Problem 4 asks to estimate two integrals by replacing curves with rectangles. Problem 5 asks how many seconds per day a pendulum clock would lose depending on the starting angle. An optional bonus Problem 6 asks to guess the functional form of the period of a pendulum for a starting angle near π.

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    Problem set 2

    Turn in Wednesday 2008-01-23 in class. Turn in only the ‘Problems’ section. The other sections
    are for your own practice.

    Warmups
    Warmup problems are quick problems for you to check your understanding; don’t turn them in.
    1. The half-life τ1/2 of a radioactive substance is the time until only one-half of the substance
    remains. How is τ1/2 related to the time until 1/e of the substance remains?
    2. You are a ship navigator back in the old days when clocks were the only way to measure
    longitude. If your expensively constructed clock has lost 10 minutes after, say, a sea voyage
    of 1 month, by roughly how many degrees will you be in error about your longitude? More
    importantly, by roughly how many miles will you be in error about your position? Should
    you be worried? (Assume that you are at 45◦ latitude.)

    Problems
    Turn in solutions to these problems.
    3. Estimate the size (in dollars/year) of the US diaper market. These market-sizing questions are
    often asked in management-consulting interviews.
    4. Estimate the integrals by replacing the smooth curve with a rectangle, using the FWHM (full­
    width, half-maximum) heuristic (Chapter 15 of the notes) to choose the rectangle. How accu­
    rate is each estimate?
    Z ∞
    1
    a. dx. [Exact answer: π.]
    −∞ 1 + x
    2
    Z ∞
    4
    b. e−x dx. [Exact answer: Γ(1/4)/2 ≈ 1.813.]
    −∞

    5. The period of a pendulum is approximately


    s 
    θ20 

    l 
    T = 2π 1 +  ,
    g 16

    where θ0 (measured in radians!) is the angle at which the pendulum is started.


    Roughly how many seconds per day does a pendulum clock with θ0 = 10◦ lose compared to
    a pendulum clock with θ0 = 5◦ , if both have the same string length l? [See Problem 2 if you
    want to know whether the loss of those seconds is significant for navigation.]

    Bonus problems
    Bonus problems are more difficult but optional problems for those who are curious.
    6. Guess the functional form of T(θ0 ) for θ0 ≈ π.

    2008-01-18 15:53:49 / rev:c44942b70bd1 1


    Cite as: Sanjoy Mahajan, course materials for 18.098 / 6.099 Street-Fighting Mathematics, IAP 2008.

    MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].

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