DEPARTMENT OF MARITIME STUDIES CHAPTER 10: Interactioons and Potential Energy

MARINE ENGINEERING PHYSICS

MEP152S

1. The three balls in Figure below, which have equal masses, are fired with equal speeds from the
same height above the ground. Rank in order, from largest to smallest, their speeds 𝑣𝑣𝑎𝑎 , 𝑣𝑣𝑏𝑏 and 𝑣𝑣𝑐𝑐 as
they hit the ground. Explain,?

2. Rank in order, from most to least, the elastic potential energy �𝑈𝑈𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 �𝑎𝑎 to �𝑈𝑈𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 �𝑑𝑑 stored in the
springs of Figure below. Explain.

3. Figure below is the energy bar chart for a firefighter sliding down a fire pole from the second floor
to the ground. Let the system consist of the firefighter, the pole, and the earth. What are the bar
heights of Wext, Kf, and UGf?

4. The lowest point in Death Valley is 85 m below sea level. The summit of nearby Mt. Whitney has
an elevation of 4420 m. What is the change in potential energy when an energetic 65 kg hiker
makes it from the floor of Death Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney? [2.9 x106 J]
5. A 55 kg skateboarder wants to just make it to the upper edge of a “quarter pipe,” a track that is
one-quarter of a circle with a radius of 3.0 m. What speed does he need at the bottom? [-7.7 m/s]
6. A 20 kg child is on a swing that hangs from 3.0-m-long chains. What is her maximum speed if she
swings out to a 45° angle [4.2 m/s]
7. A 1500 kg car traveling at 10 m/s suddenly runs out of gas while approaching the valley shown in
Figure below. The alert driver immediately puts the car in neutral so that it will roll. What will be
 the car’s speed as it coasts into the gas station on the other side of the valley? [1.4 m/s]

8. A cannon tilted up at an angle of 30° fires a cannon ball at 75 m/s from atop a 12-m-high fortress
wall. What is the ball’s impact speed on the ground below? [76.6 m/s]
9. A stretched spring stores 2.0 J of energy. How much energy will be stored if the spring is stretched
three times as far? [18 J]
10. A student places her 500 g physics book on a frictionless ta-ble. She pushes the book against a
spring, compressing the spring by 4.0 cm, then releases the book. What is the book’s speed as it
slides away? The spring constant is 1250 N/m. [2.0 m/s]

11. A block sliding along a horizontal frictionless surface with speed v collides with a spring and
compresses it by 2.0 cm. What will be the compression if the same block collides with the spring at
a speed of 2v?

12. As a 15,000 kg jet plane lands on an aircraft carrier, its tail hook snags a cable to slow it down.
The cable is attached to a spring with spring constant 60,000 N/m. If the spring stretches 30 m to
stop the plane, what was the plane’s landing speed? [60 m/s]
13. The spring in Figure below (a) is compressed by ∆x. It launches the block across a frictionless
surface with speed 𝑣𝑣𝑜𝑜 . The two springs in Figure below (b) are identical to the spring of Figure a.
They are compressed by the same ∆x and used to launch the same block. What is the block’s speed
now

14. The spring in Figure below (a) is compressed by ∆x. It launches the block across a frictionless
surface with speed v0. The two springs in Figure below (b) are identical to the spring of Figure (a).
They are compressed the same total ∆x and used to launch the same block. What is the block’s
speed now?

15. Figure is the potential-energy diagram for a 500 g particle that is released from rest at A. What are
the particle’s speeds at B, C, and D? [3.5 m/s; 2.8 m/s; 4.5 m/s]
16. a. In Figure below, what minimum speed does a 100 g particle need at point A to reach point B?
[7.7 m/s]

b. What minimum speed does a 100 g particle need at point B to reach point A? [10.0 m/s]

17. Figure below shows the potential energy of a 500 g particle as it moves along the x-axis. Suppose
the particle’s mechanical energy is 12 J.
a. Where are the particle’s turning points? [x = 1 m; x = 8 m]
b. What is the particle’s speed when it is at x = 4.0 m? [4.0 m/s]
c. What is the particle’s maximum speed? At what position or positions does this occur? [6.9
m/s]
d. Suppose the particle’s energy is lowered to 4.0 J. Can the particle ever be at x = 2.0 m? At
x = 4.0 m?

18. A system in which only one particle can move has the poten-tial energy shown in Figure below.
What is the y-component of the force on the particle at y = 0.5 m and 4 m? [15 N]

19. A particle moves from A to D in Figure below while expeiencing force 𝐹𝐹 = (6𝑖𝑖 + 8𝑗𝑗) N How
much work does the force o if the particle follows path (a) ABD [50 J], (b) ACD [50 J], and (c)
AD[50 J] ? Is this a conservative force? Explain.
20. How much work is done by the environment in the process shown in Figure below? Is energy
transferred from the environment to the system or from the system to the environment? [-1 J]

21. A cable with 20.0 N of tension pulls straight up on a 1.50 kg block that is initially at rest. What is
the block’s speed after being lifted 2.00 m? Solve this problem using work and energy. [6.26 m/s]

22. It’s been a great day of new, frictionless snow. Julie starts at the top of the 60° slope shown in
Figure below At the bottom, a circular arc carries her through a 90° turn, and she then launches off
a 3.0-m-high ramp. How far horizontally is her touchdown point from the end of the ramp? [43 m]

23. A freight company uses a compressed spring to shoot 2.0 kg packages up a 1.0-m-high frictionless
ramp into a truck, as Figure below shows. The spring constant is 500 N/m and the spring is
compressed 30 cm.
a. What is the speed of the package when it reaches the truck? [1.7 m/s]
b. A careless worker spills his soda on the ramp. This creates a 50 cm-long sticky spot with a
coefficient of kinetic friction 0.30. Will the next package make it into the truck? [0.998 m]

24. Use work and energy to find an expression for the speed of the block in FIGURE P10.52 just
before it hits the floor if
a. the coefficient of kinetic friction for the block on the table is mk and
b. the table is frictionless.

25. The spring shown in Figure below is compressed 50 cm and used to launch a 100 kg physics
student. The track is frictionless until it starts up the incline. The student’s coefficient of kinetic
friction on the 30° incline is 0.15.
a. What is the student’s speed just after losing contact with the spring? [14 m/s]
b. How far up the incline does the student go? [32 m]

26. A pendulum is formed from a small ball of mass m on a string of length L. As Figure below shows,
a peg is height h = L/3 above the pendulum’s lowest point. From what minimum angle 𝜃𝜃 must the
 pendulum be released in order for the ball to go over the top of the peg without the string going
slack? [80.4°]

27. A 10 kg box slides 4.0 m down the frictionless ramp shown in Figure below, then collides with a
spring whose spring constant is 250 N/m.

a. What is the maximum compression of the spring? [1.46 m]

b. At what compression of the spring does the box have its maximum speed? [19.6 m]

28. The spring in Figure below has a spring constant of 1000 N/m. It is compressed 15 cm, then
launches a 200 g block. The horizontal surface is frictionless, but the block’s coefficient of kinetic
friction on the incline is 0.20. What distance d does the block sail through the air? [6.7 m]

29. A sled starts from rest at the top of the frictionless, hemi-spherical, snow-covered hill shown in
below.

a. Find an expression for the sled’s speed when it is at angle 𝜙𝜙.

b. Use Newton’s laws to find the maximum speed the sled can have at angle 𝜙𝜙 without
leaving the surface.
c. At what angle 𝜙𝜙𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 does the sled “fly off” the hill? [48°]