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River Crossing Problem

This document discusses how certain kinematic problems that are difficult for undergraduate students to solve can still be useful for stimulating reasoning about more complex physical situations. The key is that these problems involve symmetry features that reveal easy solutions once noticed. As an example, it describes a problem about a boat crossing a river where the boat's and river's velocities combine in a way that keeps the sum of distances to two points constant, solving the problem. It notes how similar analyses apply to problems in planetary motion, helping students explore broader features of physics.

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Rijal Abedin
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110 views3 pages

River Crossing Problem

This document discusses how certain kinematic problems that are difficult for undergraduate students to solve can still be useful for stimulating reasoning about more complex physical situations. The key is that these problems involve symmetry features that reveal easy solutions once noticed. As an example, it describes a problem about a boat crossing a river where the boat's and river's velocities combine in a way that keeps the sum of distances to two points constant, solving the problem. It notes how similar analyses apply to problems in planetary motion, helping students explore broader features of physics.

Uploaded by

Rijal Abedin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Difficult Problems Having Easy Solutions

Oscar Bolina∗
Department of Mathematics
arXiv:physics/9905018v1 [physics.ed-ph] 6 May 1999

University of California, Davis


Davis, CA 95616-8633 USA

Abstract

We discuss how a class of difficult kinematic problems can play an important role in an
introductory course in stimulating students’ reasoning on more complex physical situations.
The problems presented here have an elementary analysis once certain symmetry features of
the motion are revealed. We also explore some unexpected directions these problems lead us.
Key Words: Plane Motion, Central Force Motion
PACS numbers: 01.40.-d, 01.40.Fk, 01.55.+b.

There is a class of kinematical problems whose general analysis lies beyond the level of under-
graduate students but which nonetheless can play an important role in introductory courses. This
happens because the problems involve certain symmetry features that allow for an easy solution
once the symmetry is revealed.
What makes these problems worth mentioning here is that they are particularly useful in stimulat-
ing students’ reasoning on richer physical situations.
Consider this typical example.

A boat crosses a river of width l with velocity of constant magnitude u always aimed toward a point
S on the opposite shore directly across its starting position. If the rivers also runs with uniform
velocity u, how far downstream from S does the boat reach the opposite shore?

Fig. 1 depicts the situation when the boat is at point B in its path RV toward the opposite shore.
Its velocity vector along BS makes an angle θ with RS. The river velocity is represented along TB.
∗
Supported by FAPESP under grant 97/14430-2. E-mail: [email protected]

1
The (easy) solution comes from the observation that in a time interval ∆t the distance BS of the
boat to the point S on the opposite shore diminishes by (u − u cos θ)∆t, while, at the same time,
its distance TB to T increases by the same amount, thus keeping the sum BS + T B constant
throughout the trip along RV. Since it is clear that at the starting position BS = l and T B = 0,
while at the final position BS = BT = d, which is the distance downstream, we conclude that
d = l/2 (See [1] for further examples).
The importance of this example lies in its far-reaching scope. For instance, many problems in
central force motion (planetary motion) can be formulated in similar terms, and the same kind of
analysis applies as well. Note the similarity we obtain if we turn the boat of the example into a
comet describing a parabolic orbit around a sun S in the focus, as in Fig. 2. In this case, it is the
component velocities along TB and normal to SB that are constants throughout the orbit (Compare
with Fig. 1). As a result we learn that now the sum of the distances SB + BP is constant along
the comet’s orbit. This fact defines the parabolic orbit and, with SB = r and BP = r cos θ, yields
its equation in polar coordinates as r(1 + cos θ) = const.
We can go still further to realize that a parabolic orbit is unstable under the influence of possible
nearby planets, and may be easily converted into an ellipse or an hyperbola, according to whether
the velocity of the comet decreases or increases as a result of the planetary perturbation [2]. When
this happens, the pattern of constant velocity components, u parallel to a fixed direction (as BT),
and v normal to the radius vector BS, is preserved in the new orbit. The difference is that these
two velocities will not be equal to each other any more, and the ratio u/v will determine the shape
of the orbit (though not its size), being an ellipse when u/v < 1, and a hyperbola when u/v > 1.
We leave it to the reader to explore other features of planetary motion opened up by our example.

References

[1] A.S. Ramsey, Dynamics, Cambridge University Press (1951) chapter 3.

[2] The New Space Encyclopaedia, E. P. Dutton & Co., INC. N.Y. (1960) Entry: Comet.

2
R l S
T θ

u d

V
u

Figure 1: In this motion SB + T B is constant.

T S
R
θ

P
B

V
u
u

Figure 2: For the parabola, SB + BP is constant.

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