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18 views2 pages

Tutorial 8

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drd
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Department of Physics PHY 112-Tutorial 8

IIT Kanpur Jan-May 2016

Figure 1: Figure for problems 1, 2, and 5.

1. A rectangle of height 2a and width 2b rests on top of a fixed cylinder of radius R (see
Fig. 1a). The moment of inertia of the rectangle around its center is I. The rectangle is
given a tiny kick and then ‘rolls’ on the cylinder without slipping. Find the equation of
motion for the tilt angle of the rectangle. Under what conditions will the rectangle fall
off the cylinder, and under what conditions will it oscillate back and forth? Find the
frequency of these small oscillations.
2. One end of a uniform stick is attached to a pivot, and the pivot is free to slide along
a frictionless horizontal rail. The stick is held at an initial angle θ0 from the (upward)
vertical direction and then released; see Fig. 1b. Assume that the stick can swing
below the horizontal position without running into the rail (perhaps by having the pivot
attached to the side of the rail so that the stick is shifted horizontally a small distance
from the rail).
(a) Show that when the stick is horizontal, the normal force N from the rail equals
mg/4, independent of θ0 .
(b) If θ0 = 0 (a tiny kick is allowed), show that N = 13mg when the stick is at the
bottom of its motion (at θ = π).
(c) If θ0 = 0, show that the minimum N occurs at θ ≈ 61.5o and that the value is
Nmin ≈ (0.165)mg. You will obtain a cubic equation; feel free to solve it numerically.
3. A spring with spring constant k and relaxed length zero lies along a spoke of a massless
wheel of radius R. One end of the spring is attached to the center, and the other end
is attached to a mass m that is free to slide along the spoke. When the system is
in its equilibrium position with the spring hanging vertically, how far (in terms of R)
should the mass hang down (you are free to adjust k) so that for small oscillations, the
frequency of the spring oscillations equals the frequency of the rocking motion of the
wheel? Assume that the wheel rolls without slipping.
4. In the class, we derived the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion, assuming that the La-
grangian of a 1D system of 1 particle can be described by {x(t), ẋ(t)}. Let xα (t) ≡

Phy112: Introduction to Dynamics Rohit Medwal, Amit Agarwal


Phy112 Page 2 of 2 Tutorial 8

x0 (t) + αβ(t). We derived the first derivative of the action with respect to α.
(a) Calculate the second derivative of S with respect to α.
(b) Assume that there is an additional ẍ dependence (in addition to x, ẋ, and t de-
pendence) in the Lagrangian. How will the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion be
modified?

5. Problem discussed in the Class:– A particle slides on the inside surface of a frictionless
cone. The cone is fixed with its tip on the ground and its axis vertical. The half-angle
at the tip is α (see Fig. 1c). Let r be the distance from the particle to the axis, and let
θ be the angle around the cone.
(a) Find the equations of motion.
(b) If the particle moves in a circle of radius r0 , what is the frequency, ω, of this motion?
(c) If the particle is then perturbed slightly from this circular motion, what is the
frequency, Ω, of the oscillations about the radius r0 ? Under what conditions is
Ω = ω?
(d) Analyze the results ω, Ω and ω/Ω in the limiting cases of α = 0 and α = π/2.

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