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    Falling Chain

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    dgtlcraft
    1) The equations of motion for a falling chain on a frictionless surface and a surface with friction are derived. 2) For a frictionless surface, the equation of motion is a second order differential equation that can be solved to find the time it takes for the chain to fall off the table. 3) For a surface with friction, the equation of motion is modified to include a frictional force term and can also be solved to find the sliding time.

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    Falling Chain

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    dgtlcraft
    332 views5 pages
    1) The equations of motion for a falling chain on a frictionless surface and a surface with friction are derived. 2) For a frictionless surface, the equation of motion is a second order differential equation that can be solved to find the time it takes for the chain to fall off the table. 3) For a surface with friction, the equation of motion is modified to include a frictional force term and can also be solved to find the sliding time.

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    1) The equations of motion for a falling chain on a frictionless surface and a surface with friction are derived. 2) For a frictionless surface, the equation of motion is a second order differential equation that can be solved to find the time it takes for the chain to fall off the table. 3) For a surface with friction, the equation of motion is modified to include a frictional force term and can also be solved to find the sliding time.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    332 views5 pages

    Falling Chain

    Uploaded by

    dgtlcraft
    1) The equations of motion for a falling chain on a frictionless surface and a surface with friction are derived. 2) For a frictionless surface, the equation of motion is a second order differential equation that can be solved to find the time it takes for the chain to fall off the table. 3) For a surface with friction, the equation of motion is modified to include a frictional force term and can also be solved to find the sliding time.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    Brown University Physics Department

    PHYS 0050/0070

    THE SLIDING CHAIN

    In this handout we describe the equations of motion of a falling chain, we distinguish between two cases: 1.) the chain is on a frictionless surface (easier), and 2.) there is some coefficient of friction between the chain and the surface which cannot be neglected (see figure 1.)

    L-x f

    Fg

    FIGURE 1 We first consider the easier case of a hanging chain on a frictionless surface. In this instance the frictional force f is zero. To solve this problem we make an analogy to a simpler system that we have solved earlier (see Force and Acceleration Handout), two masses ( mt , mh ) connected by a string and a massless pulley (figure 2).

    The equations of motion solving the simpler system depicted in figure 2 are the following: 1.) 2.) mt a = T mh a = F T

    Solving equations 1 and 2 yields: 3.)


    a= mh g mt + m h

    We can solve for the chain if we notice that mh = x and mt = ( L x) , where is the density per unit length of the chain (see figure 1).

    Equation 3 now becomes 4.) a = d 2 x gx = L dt 2

    Equation 4 is the correct equation of motion (your instructor or TA may derive it in a more rigorous way), it is an ordinary differential equation which can be solved in many ways, its solution (check this) is:
    + Be (

    5.) x(t ) = Ae (

    g / l )t

    g / l )t

    Where A and B are constants to be determined by the initial boundary conditions in the problem. The initial conditions for this problem are x(0) = x0 , where x0 is the length of chain initially hanging over the table, and v0 = 0 (the chain is released at rest).These initial conditions applied to equation 5 yield: 6.) x0 = A + B 7.) 0 =
    g A l

    and
    g B l

    Hence A=B= x0 / 2 and:


    x 8.) x(t ) = 0 2 e
    g l t g l t

    +e

    Equation 8 can be solved for the time it takes the chain to fall off the table, given by x(t f ) = L , then
    x 9.) L = 0 2 e
    g l
    t f

    +e

    g l

    t f

    Then 10.) t f =
    L x0 L cosh 1 x g 0

    e x + ex is the hyperbolic cosine function. Many calculators and 2 computer software have cosh(x) and inverse cosh functions built in, so it should not be hard to compare experiment and theory for the time that the frictionless chain will fall off Where cosh(x) =

    the table. Note this expression will agree with that given in Ford (p 260, problem 7.10) if you use the following identity: 11.) cosh 1 ( x) = ln( x + x 2 1) See any good table of integrals, or CRC, or derive this yourself if you have the time or inclination. An alternate approach is to use the work energy theorem
    finds:

    F dr = (KE ) , then one

    g g 2 dx 12.) = x 2 x0 which can be rearranged as l l dt


    13.)

    dx x x
    2 2 0

    g dt l

    and then easily integrated

    14.) t f =

    1/ 2 l l l2 + 1 ln 2 g x0 x0

    Note that taking the derivative of both sides of equation 12 will yield equation 4. Other options would be to use a video camera or motion sensor and compare your position vs. time data with equation 8 (see your TA if you have trouble fitting your data to equation 8). If you cant eliminate or compensate for friction in your experiment, you will have to add a frictional force term ( f = g ( L x) ) to the equation of motion and solve (see your TA if you have trouble).The equation of motion will then be: d 2x x (l x) g = g 15.) 2 l l dt

    Equation 15 can be solved easily if we make the following change of variables: l 16.) x = x g (1 + ) g , then equation 15 becomes: 17.)
    d 2 x g (1 + ) = x with solution: l dt 2

    g (1 + ) t 18.) x = x0 cosh l 19.) x =

    (See reference 3). Then transforming back we have:

    g (1 + ) l l cosh + x0 + t , the sliding time t f is then: 1+ 1+ l


    l l (1 + ) cosh 1 l x0 (1 + )

    l 20.) t f = g (1 + )

    1/ 2

    References: 1.) Ford p. 260 Problem 7.10 2.) Halliday and Resnick page 185 Problem 41 3.) Behroozi, F. The sliding chain problem with and without friction: a universal solution Eur. J. Phys 18 15-17.

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