Problems in Introductory Physics

B. Crowell and B. Shotwell

2

Copyright 2016 B. Crowell and B. Shotwell.

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Contents
1 Measurement 7
1.1 The SI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 Significant figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Proportionalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 Kinematics in one dimension 15

2.1 Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3 Kinematics in three dimensions 31

3.1 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4 Newton’s laws, part 1 43

4.1 Newton’s first law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Newton’s second law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 Newton’s third law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

5 Newton’s laws, part 2 51

5.1 Classification of forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.2 Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.3 Elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.4 Ropes, pulleys, tension, and simple machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.5 Analysis of forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

6 Circular motion 69
6.1 Uniform circular motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.2 Rotating frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.3 Nonuniform motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.4 Rotational kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7 Conservation of energy 79
7.1 Conservation laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.2 Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.3 Kinetic energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

3
4 CONTENTS

7.4 Potential energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

8 Conservation of momentum 97
8.1 Momentum: a conserved vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.2 Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.3 The center of mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

9 Conservation of angular momentum 105

9.1 Angular momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9.2 Rigid-body dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9.3 Torque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
9.4 Statics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

10 Fluids 121
10.1 Statics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.2 Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

11 Gravity 127
11.1 Kepler’s laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
11.2 Newton’s law of gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
11.3 The shell theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
11.4 Universality of free fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
11.5 Current status of Newton’s theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
11.6 Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

12 Oscillations 141
12.1 Periodic motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
12.2 Simple harmonic motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
12.3 Damped oscillations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
12.4 Driven oscillations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

13 Waves 151
13.1 Free waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
13.2 Bounded waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

14 Electrical interactions 157

14.1 Charge and Coulomb’s law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
14.2 The electric field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
14.3 Conductors and insulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
14.4 The electric dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
CONTENTS 5

14.5 The field of a continuous charge distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

14.6 Gauss’s law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
14.7 Gauss’s law in differential form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

15 The electric potential 167

15.1 The electric potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
15.2 Capacitance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
15.3 Dielectrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
15.4 Poisson’s equation and Laplace’s equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
15.5 The method of images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

16 Circuits 175
16.1 Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
16.2 Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
16.3 The loop and junction rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

17 Basics of relativity 183

17.1 The Lorentz transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
17.2 Length contraction and time dilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

18 Electromagnetism 187
18.1 Electromagnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
18.2 The magnetic field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

19 Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetic waves 195

19.1 Maxwell’s equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
19.2 Electromagnetic waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
19.3 Maxwell’s equations in matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

20 LRC circuits 199

20.1 Complex numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
20.2 LRC circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

21 Thermodynamics 205
21.1 Pressure, temperature, and heat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
21.2 Kinetic theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
21.3 Entropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
6 CONTENTS

22 Optics 211
22.1 Geometric optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
22.2 Wave optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

23 More about relativity 225

23.1 More about relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

24 Quantum physics 227

24.1 The nucleus, half-life, and probability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
24.2 Wave-particle duality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
1 Measurement
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems The digits after the first few are completely
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although meaningless. Since the circumference could have
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- varied by about a centimeter in either direction,
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is the diameter is fuzzy by something like a third
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to of a centimeter. We say that the additional, ran-
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- dom digits are not significant figures. If you
pose of the summary is to show what material is write down a number with a lot of gratuitous
needed in order to do the problems, and to show insignificant figures, it shows a lack of scientific
what terminology and notation are being used. literacy and imples to other people a greater pre-
cision than you really have.
As a rule of thumb, the result of a calculation
1.1 The SI has as many significant figures, or “sig figs,” as
the least accurate piece of data that went in. In
The Système International (SI) is a system of the example with the soccer ball, it didn’t do us
measurement in which mechanical quantities are any good to know π to dozens of digits, because
expressed in terms of three basic units: the me- the bottleneck in the precision of the result was
ter (m), the kilogram (kg), and the second (s). the figure for the circumference, which was two
Other units can be built out of these. For ex- sig figs. The result is 22 cm. The rule of thumb
ample, the SI unit to measure the flow of water works best for multiplication and division.
through a pipe would be kg/s. The numbers 13 and 13.0 mean different
To modify the units there is a consistent set of things, because the latter implies higher preci-
prefixes. The following are common and should sion. The number 0.0037 is two significant fig-
be memorized: ures, not four, because the zeroes after the dec-
prefix meaning imal place are placeholders. A number like 530
nano- n 10−9 could be either two sig figs or three; if we wanted
micro- µ 10−6 to remove the ambiguity, we could write it in sci-
milli- m 10−3 entific notation as 5.3 × 102 or 5.30 × 102 .
kilo- k 103
mega- M 106
1.3 Proportionalities
The symbol µ, for micro-, is Greek lowercase mu,
which is equivalent to the Latin “m.” There is Often it is more convenient to reason about the
also centi-, 10−2 , which is only used in the cen- ratios of quantities rather than their actual val-
timeter. ues. For example, suppose we want to know what
happens to the area of a circle when we triple its
radius. We know that A = πr2 , but the factor
1.2 Significant figures of π is not of interest here because it’s present
in both cases, the small circle and the large one.
The international governing body for football Throwing away the constant of proportionality,
(“soccer” in the US) says the ball should we can write A ∝ r2 , where the proportionality
have a circumference of 68 to 70 cm. Tak- symbol ∝, read “is proportional to,” says that
ing the middle of this range and divid- the left-hand side doesn’t necessarily equal the
ing by π gives a diameter of approximately right-hand side, but it does equal the right-hand
21.96338214668155633610595934540698196 cm. side multiplied by a constant.

7
8 CHAPTER 1. MEASUREMENT

Any proportionality can be interpreted as a

statement about ratios. For example, the state-
ment A ∝ r2 is exactly equivalent to the state-
ment that A1 /A2 = (r1 /r2 )2 , where the sub-
scripts 1 and 2 refer to any two circles. This in
our example, the given information that r1 /r2 =
3 tells us that A1 /A2 = 9.
In geometrical applications, areas are always
proportional to the square of the linear dimen-
sions, while volumes go like the cube.

1.4 Estimation
It is useful to be able to make rough estimates,
e.g., how many bags of gravel will I need to fill
my driveway? Sometimes all we need is an esti-
mate so rough that we only care about getting
the result to about the nearest factor of ten, i.e.,
to within an order of magnitude. For example,
anyone with a basic knowledge of US geography
can tell that the distance from New Haven to
New York is probably something like 100 km, not
10 km or 1000 km. When making estimates of
physical quantities, the following guidelines are
helpful:

1. Don’t even attempt more than one signifi-

cant figure of precision.

2. Don’t guess area, volume, or mass directly.

Guess linear dimensions and get area, vol-
ume, or mass from them. Mass is often best
found by estimating linear dimensions and
density.

3. When dealing with areas or volumes of ob-

jects with complex shapes, idealize them as
if they were some simpler shape, a cube or
a sphere, for example.
4. Check your final answer to see if it is rea-
sonable. If you estimate that a herd of
ten thousand cattle would yield 0.01 m2 of
leather, then you have probably made a mis-
take with conversion factors somewhere.
PROBLEMS 9

Problems superduper mean, defined as (ab)1/3 . Is this rea-

sonable?
1-a1 Convert 134 mg to units of kg, writing . Solution, p. 233
your answer in scientific notation.
. Solution, p. 233
1-a2 Express each of the following quantities1-d2 (a) Based on the definitions of the sine,
in micrograms: cosine, and tangent, what units must they have?
(a) 10 mg, (b) 104 g, (c) 10 kg, (d) 100 × 103 g,(b) A cute formula from trigonometry lets you
√
(e) 1000 ng. find any angle of a triangle if you know the
lengths of its sides. Using the notation shown
in the figure, and letting s = (a + b + c)/2 be half
1-a3 In the last century, the average age of the perimeter, we have
the onset of puberty for girls has decreased by s
several years. Urban folklore has it that this (s − b)(s − c)
tan A/2 = .
is because of hormones fed to beef cattle, but s(s − a)
it is more likely to be because modern girls
have more body fat on the average and possibly Show that the units of this equation make sense.
because of estrogen-mimicking chemicals in the In other words, check that the units of the right-
environment from the breakdown of pesticides. hand side are the same as your answer to part a
A hamburger from a hormone-implanted steer of the question.
has about 0.2 ng of estrogen (about double the . Solution, p. 233
amount of natural beef). A serving of peas
contains about 300 ng of estrogen. An adult
woman produces about 0.5 mg of estrogen per
day (note the different unit!). (a) How many
hamburgers would a girl have to eat in one
day to consume as much estrogen as an adult
woman’s daily production? (b) How many √
servings of peas?

1-d1 The usual definition of the mean (aver-

age) of two numbers a and b is (a + b)/2. This
is called the arithmetic mean. The geometric
mean, however, is defined as (ab)1/2 (i.e., the
square root of ab). For the sake of definiteness,
let’s say both numbers have units of mass. (a)
Compute the arithmetic mean of two numbers
that have units of grams. Then convert the num-
bers to units of kilograms and recompute their Problem 1-d2.
mean. Is the answer consistent? (b) Do the same
for the geometric mean. (c) If a and b both have
units of grams, what should we call the units 1-d3 Jae starts from the formula V = 13 Ah
of ab? Does your answer make sense when you for the volume of a cone, where A is the area of
take the square root? (d) Suppose someone pro- its base, and h is its height. He wants to find
poses to you a third kind of mean, called the an equation that will tell him how tall a conical
10 CHAPTER 1. MEASUREMENT

tent has to be in order to have a certain volume,

given its radius. His algebra goes like this:
1
V = Ah Problem 1-g2.
3
A = πr2
1
V = πr2 h 1-j1 The one-liter cube in the photo has been
3
πr2 marked off into smaller cubes, with linear dimen-
h= sions one tenth those of the big one. What is the
3V
volume of each of the small cubes?
Use units to check whether the final result makes . Solution, p. 233
sense. If it doesn’t, use units to locate the line
of algebra where the mistake happened.
. Solution, p. 233
1-d4 The distance
√ to the horizon is given by
the expression 2rh, where r is the radius of the
Earth, and h is the observer’s height above the
Earth’s surface. (This can be proved using the
Pythagorean theorem.) Show that the units of
this expression make sense. Don’t try to prove
the result, just check its units. (For an example
of how to do this, see problem 1-d3 on p. 9, which
has a solution given in the back of the book.)
Problem 1-j1.
1-d5 Let the function x be defined by x(t) =
Aebt , where t has units of seconds and x has
units of meters. (For b < 0, this could be a fairly 1-j2 How many cm2 is 1 mm2 ?
accurate model of the motion of a bullet shot . Solution, p. 233
into a tank of oil.) Show that the Taylor series 1-j3 Compare the light-gathering powers of a
of this function makes sense if and only if A and 3-cm-diameter telescope and a 30-cm telescope.
b have certain units. . Solution, p. 233
1-j4 The traditional Martini glass is shaped
1-g1 In an article on the SARS epidemic, the like a cone with the point at the bottom. Sup-
May 7, 2003 New York Times discusses conflict- pose you make a Martini by pouring vermouth
ing estimates of the disease’s incubation period into the glass to a depth of 3 cm, and then adding
(the average time that elapses from infection to gin to bring the depth to 6 cm. What are the
the first symptoms). “The study estimated it to proportions of gin and vermouth?
be 6.4 days. But other statistical calculations ... . Solution, p. 233
showed that the incubation period could be as 1-j5 How many cubic inches are there in a
long as 14.22 days.” What’s wrong here? cubic foot? The answer is not 12. √

1-j6 Assume a dog’s brain is twice as great

1-g2 The photo shows the corner of a bag of in diameter as a cat’s, but each animal’s brain
pretzels. What’s wrong here? cells are the same size and their brains are the
same shape. In addition to being a far better
PROBLEMS 11

companion and much nicer to come home to, how them settle. This results in a random packing.
many times more brain cells does a dog have than The closest random packing has f ≈ 0.64. Sup-
a cat? The answer is not 2. pose that golf balls, with a standard diameter
of 4.27 cm, are sold in bulk with the closest ran-
1-k1 One step on the Richter scale corre- dom packing. What is the diameter of the largest
sponds to a factor of 100 in terms of the en- ball that could be sold in boxes of the same size,
ergy absorbed by something on the surface of packed systematically, so that there would be the
the Earth, e.g., a house. For instance, a 9.3- same number of balls per box? √
magnitude quake would release 100 times more
energy than an 8.3. The energy spreads out
from the epicenter as a wave, and for the sake
of this problem we’ll assume we’re dealing with
seismic waves that spread out in three dimen-
sions, so that we can visualize them as hemi-
spheres spreading out under the surface of the
earth. If a certain 7.6-magnitude earthquake and
a certain 5.6-magnitude earthquake produce the
same amount of vibration where I live, compare
the distances from my house to the two epicen-
ters.
. Solution, p. 233
1-k2 The central portion of a CD is taken
Problem 1-k4.
up by the hole and some surrounding clear plas-
tic, and this area is unavailable for storing data.
The radius of the central circle is about 35% of 1-k5 Radio was first commercialized around
the outer radius of the data-storing area. What 1920, and ever since then, radio signals from our
percentage of the CD’s area is therefore lost?√ planet have been spreading out across our galaxy.
It is possible that alien civilizations could de-
1-k3 The Earth’s surface is about 70% water. tect these signals and learn that there is life on
Mars’s diameter is about half the Earth’s, but it earth. In the 90 years that the signals have been
has no surface water. Compare the land areas of spreading at the speed of light, they have cre-
the two planets. √ ated a sphere with a radius of 90 light-years. To
show an idea of the size of this sphere, I’ve in-
1-k4 At the grocery store you will see or- dicated it in the figure as a tiny white circle on
anges packed neatly in stacks. Suppose we want an image of a spiral galaxy seen edge on. (We
to pack spheres as densely as possible, so that don’t have similar photos of our own Milky Way
the greatest possible fraction of the space is galaxy, because we can’t see it from the outside.)
filled by the spheres themselves, not by empty So far we haven’t received answering signals from
space. Let’s call this fraction f . Mathemati- aliens within this sphere, but as time goes on, the
cians have proved that the best possible result is sphere will expand as suggested by the dashed
f ≈ 0.7405, which requires a systematic pattern outline, reaching more and more stars that might
of stacking. If you buy ball bearings or golf balls, harbor extraterrestrial life. Approximately what
however, the seller is probably not going to go year will it be when the sphere has expanded to
to the trouble of stacking them neatly. Instead fill a volume 100 times greater than the volume
they will probably pour the balls into a box and it fills today in 2010? √
vibrate the box vigorously for a while to make
12 CHAPTER 1. MEASUREMENT

the species of lupine in the San Gabriels. Ap-

proximately how many species would you have √
to familiarize yourself with?
(b) What is the interpretation of the fact that
the exponent, 1/3, is less than one?
?
1-m2 The population density of Los Angeles
is about 4000 people/km2 . That of San Francisco
is about 6000 people/km2 . How many times far-
Problem 1-k5. ther away is the average person’s nearest neigh-
bor in LA than in San Francisco? The answer is
not 1.5. √
1-k6 X-ray images aren’t only used with hu- ?
man subjects but also, for example, on insects 1-m3 In Europe, a piece of paper of the stan-
and flowers. In 2003, a team of researchers dard size, called A4, is a little narrower and taller
at Argonne National Laboratory used x-ray im- than its American counterpart. The ratio of the
agery to find for the first time that insects, al- height to the width is the square root of 2, and
though they do not have lungs, do not necessar- this has some useful properties. For instance, if
ily breathe completely passively, as had been be- you cut an A4 sheet from left to right, you get
lieved previously; many insects rapidly compress two smaller sheets that have the same propor-
and expand their trachea, head, and thorax in tions. You can even buy sheets of this smaller
order to force air in and out of their bodies. One size, and they’re called A5. There is a whole se-
difference between x-raying a human and an in- ries of sizes related in this way, all with the same
sect is that if a medical x-ray machine was used proportions. (a) Compare an A5 sheet to an A4
on an insect, virtually 100% of the x-rays would in terms of area and linear size. (b) The series of
pass through its body, and there would be no paper sizes starts from an A0 sheet, which has
contrast in the image produced. Less penetrat- an area of one square meter. Suppose we had
ing x-rays of lower energies have to be used. For a series of boxes defined in a similar way: the
comparison, a typical human body mass is about B0 box has a volume of one cubic meter, two B1
70 kg, whereas a typical ant is about 10 mg. Es- boxes fit exactly inside an B0 box, and so on.
timate the ratio of the thicknesses of tissue that What would be the dimensions of a B0 box?
√
must be penetrated by x-rays in one case com- ?
pared to the other. √ 1-p1 Estimate the number of jellybeans in
the figure.
1-m1 A taxon (plural taxa) is a group of . Solution, p. 233
living things. For example, Homo sapiens and
1-p2 Suppose you took enough water out of
Homo neanderthalensis are both taxa — specif-
the oceans to reduce sea level by 1 mm, and you
ically, they are two different species within the
took that water and used it to fill up water bot-
genus Homo. Surveys by botanists show that the
tles. Make an order-of-magnitude estimate of
number of plant taxa native to a given contigu-
how many water bottles could you fill.
ous land area A is usually approximately pro-
portional to A1/3 . (a) There are 70 different
species of lupine native to Southern California, 1-p3 If you filled up a small classroom with
2
which has an area of about 200, 000 km . The pennies, about much money would be in the
San Gabriel Mountains cover about 1, 600 km . 2 room?
Suppose that you wanted to learn to identify all
PROBLEMS 13

part b, what does this tell you about the size of

a typical human cell compared to the size of a
typical bacterial cell?

Problem 1-p7.

Problem 1-p1.
1-q1 Estimate the number of man-hours re-
quired for building the Great Wall of China.
1-p4 Estimate the mass of one of the hairs in . Solution, p. 234 ?
Albert Einstein’s moustache, in units of kg.
1-q2 Plutonium-239 is one of a small num-
1-p5 Estimate the number of blades of grass
ber of important long-lived forms of high-level
on a football field.
radioactive nuclear waste. The world’s waste
stockpiles have about 103 metric tons of pluto-
1-p6 Suppose someone built a gigantic apart- nium. Drinking water is considered safe by U.S.
ment building, measuring 10 km × 10 km at the government standards if it contains less than
base. Estimate how tall the building would have 2×10−13 g/cm3 of plutonium. The amount of ra-
to be to have space in it for the entire world’s dioactivity to which you were exposed by drink-
population to live. ing such water on a daily basis would be very
small compared to the natural background radi-
1-p7 (a) Using the microscope photo in the ation that you are exposed to every year. Sup-
figure, estimate the mass of a one cell of the E. pose that the world’s inventory of plutonium-239
coli bacterium, which is one of the most com- were ground up into an extremely fine dust and
mon ones in the human intestine. Note the scale then dispersed over the world’s oceans, thereby
at the lower right corner, which is 1 µm. Each becoming mixed uniformly into the world’s wa-
of the tubular objects in the column is one cell. ter supplies over time. Estimate the resulting
(b) The feces in the human intestine are mostly concentration of plutonium, and compare with
bacteria (some dead, some alive), of which E. the government standard.
coli is a large and typical component. Estimate ?
the number of bacteria in your intestines, and
compare with the number of human cells in your
body, which is believed to be roughly on the or-
der of 1013 . (c) Interpreting your result from
14 CHAPTER 1. MEASUREMENT
2 Kinematics in one dimension
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems example, vAB is the velocity of A relative to B,
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although then
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
vAC = vAB + vBC . (2.3)
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- The principle of inertia states that if an object
pose of the summary is to show what material is is not acted on by a force, its velocity remains
needed in order to do the problems, and to show constant. For example, if a rolling soccer ball
what terminology and notation are being used. slows down, the change in its velocity is not be-
cause the ball naturally “wants” to slow down
but because of a frictional force that the grass
2.1 Velocity exerts on it.
A frame of reference in which the principle of
The motion of a particle in one dimension can inertia holds is called an inertial frame of refer-
be described using the function x(t) that gives ence. The earth’s surface defines a very nearly
its position at any time. Its velocity is defined inertial frame of reference, but so does the cabin
by the derivative of a cruising passenger jet. Any frame of refer-
dx ence moving at constant velocity, in a straight
v= . (2.1) line, relative to an inertial frame is also an in-
dt
ertial frame. An example of a noninertial frame
From the definition, we see that the SI units of of reference is a car in an amusement park ride
velocity are meters per second, m/s. Positive that maneuvers violently.
and negative signs indicate the direction of mo-
tion, relative to the direction that is arbitrarily
called positive when we pick our coordinate sys-
tem. In the case of constant velocity, we have 2.2 Acceleration
∆x
v= , (2.2) The acceleration of a particle is defined as the
∆t
time derivative of the velocity, or the second
where the notation ∆ (Greek uppercase “delta,” derivative of the position with respect to time:
like Latin “D”) means “change in,” or “final
minus initial.” When the velocity is not con-
stant, this equation is false, although the quan- dv d2 x
a= = 2. (2.4)
tity ∆x/∆t can be interpreted as a kind of aver- dt dt
age velocity.
Velocity can only be defined if we choose some It measures the rate at which the velocity is
arbitrary reference point that we consider to be changing. Its units2
are m/s/s, more commonly
at rest. Therefore velocity is relative, not abso- written as m/s .
lute. A person aboard a cruising passenger jet Unlike velocity, acceleration is not just a mat-
might consider the cabin to be at rest, but some- ter of opinion. Observers in different inertial
one on the ground might say that the plane was frames of reference agree on accelerations. An
moving very fast — relative to the dirt. acceleration is caused by the force that one ob-
To convert velocities from one frame of ref- ject exerts on another.
erence to another, we add a constant. If, for In the case of constant acceleration, simple al-

15
16 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

gebra and calculus give the following relations: Graphs of position, velocity, and acceler-
ation
∆v
a= (2.5)
The motion of an object can be represented vi-
∆t
1 sually by a stack of graphs of x versus t, v versus
x = x0 + v0 t + at2 (2.6) t, and a versus t. Figure ?? shows two examples.
2
2 2 The slope of the tangent line at a given point on
vf = v0 + 2a∆x, (2.7) one graph equals the value of the function at the
same time in the graph below.
where the subscript 0 (read “nought”) means ini-
tial, or t = 0, and f means final.

Free fall
Galileo showed by experiment that when the
only force acting on an object is gravity, the ob-
ject’s acceleration has a value that is indepen-
dent of the object’s mass. This is because the
greater force of gravity on a heavier object is
exactly compensated for by the object’s greater
inertia, meaning its tendency to resist a change
in its motion. For example, if you stand up now
and drop a coin side by side with your shoe, you
should see them hit the ground at almost the
same time, despite the huge disparity in mass.
The magnitude of the acceleration of falling ob-
jects is notated g, and near the earth’s surface
g is approximately 9.8 m/s2 . This number is a
measure of the strength of the earth’s gravita-
tional field.

The inclined plane

If an object slides frictionlessly on a ramp that
forms an angle θ with the horizontal, then its
acceleration equals g sin θ. This can be shown
based on a looser, generalized statement of the
principle of inertia, which leads to the conclusion
that the gain in speed on a slope depends only
on the vertical drop.1 For θ = 90◦ , we recover
the case of free fall.

1 For details of this argument, see Crowell, Mechanics,

lightandmatter.com, section 3.6.

2.2. ACCELERATION 17

Figure 2.1: 1. Graphs representing the motion of an object moving with a constant acceleration of
1 m/s2 . 2. Graphs for a parachute jumper who initially accelerates at g, but later accelerates more
slowly due to air resistance.
18 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

Problems 2-b3 On a 20 km bike ride, you ride the first

10 km at an average speed of 8 km/hour. What
2-a1 You’re standing in a freight train, and average speed must you have over the next 10
have no way to see out. If you have to lean to km if your average speed for the whole ride is to
stay on your feet, what, if anything, does that be 12 km/hour? √
tell you about the train’s velocity? Explain.
2-b4 (a) In a race, you run the first half of
2-a2 Interpret the general rule vAB = −vBA the distance at speed u, and the second half at
in words. speed v. Find the over-all speed, i.e., the total
√
distance divided by the total time.
2-a3 Wa-Chuen slips away from her father (b) Check the units of your equation .
at the mall and walks up the down escalator, so (c) Check that your answer makes sense in the
that she stays in one place. Write this in terms of case where u = v.
symbols, using the notation with two subscripts (d) Show that the dependence of your result
introduced in section 2.1. on u and v makes sense. That is, first check
whether making u bigger makes the result big-
2-a4 Driving along in your car, you take your ger, or smaller. Then compare this with what
foot off the gas, and your speedometer shows a you expect physically.
reduction in speed. Describe an inertial frame
of reference in which your car was speeding up 2-b5 An object starts moving at t = 0, and
during that same period of time. its position is given by x = At5 − Bt2 , where t
? is in seconds and x is in meters. A is a non-zero
2-b1 (a) Translate the following information constant. (a) Infer the units of A and B. √
into symbols, using the notation with two sub- (b) Find the velocity as a function of t.
scripts introduced in section 2.1. Eowyn is riding (c) What is the average velocity from 0 to t as √ a
on her horse at a velocity of 11 m/s. She twists function of time?
around in her saddle and fires an arrow back- (d) At what time t (t > 0) is the velocity at t
ward. Her bow fires arrows at 25 m/s. (b) Find equal to the average velocity from 0 to t? √
the velocity of the arrow relative to the ground.
2-b6 (a) Let R be the radius of the Earth
2-b2 An airport has a moving walkway to and T the time (one day) that it takes for one
help people move across and/or between termi- rotation. Find the speed at which a point on
nals quickly. Suppose that you’re walking north the equator moves due to the rotation of the √
on such a walkway, where the walkway has speed earth.
3.0 m/s relative to the airport, and you walk at (b) Check the units of your equation .
a speed of 2.0 m/s. You pass by your friend, who (c) Check that your answer to part a makes
is off the walkway, traveling south at 1.5 m/s. sense in the case where the Earth stops rotating
(a) What is the magnitude of your velocity with completely, so that T is infinitely long.
√
respect to the moving walkway? (d) Nairobi, Kenya, is very close to the equator.
(b) What is the magnitude of your velocity with Plugging in numbers to your answer from part
√
respect to the airport? a, find Nairobi’s speed in meters per second.
(c) What is the magnitude of your velocity with See the table in the back of the book for the
√
respect to your friend? relevant data. For comparison, the speed of √
(d) If it takes you 45 seconds to get across the air- sound is about 340 m/s.
port terminal, how long does it take your friend?
√
PROBLEMS 19

2-c1 In running races at distances of 800

meters and longer, runners do not have their
own lanes, so in order to pass, they have to go
around their opponents. Suppose we adopt the
simplified geometrical model suggested by the
figure, in which the two runners take equal times
to trace out the sides of an isoceles triangle,
deviating from parallelism by the angle θ. The
runner going straight runs at speed v, while the
one who is passing must run at a greater speed.
Let the difference in speeds be ∆v. √
(a) Find ∆v in terms of v and θ.
(b) Check the units of your equation .
(c) Check that your answer makes sense in
the special case where θ = 0, i.e., in the case
where the runners are on an extremely long
straightaway.
(d) Suppose that θ = 1.0 degrees, which is about
the smallest value that will allow a runner to
pass in the distance available on the straight-
away of a track, and let v = 7.06 m/s, which is
the women’s world record pace at 800 meters.
Plug numbers into your equation from part √ a
to determine ∆v, and comment on the result.

?
2-c2 In 1849, Fizeau carried out the first Problem 2-c1.
terrestrial measurement of the speed of light;
previous measurements by Roemer and Bradley
had involved astronomical observation. The fig-
ure shows a simplified conceptual representation (a) Find the speed of light c in terms of L, n, √
of Fizeau’s experiment. A ray of light from a and f .
bright source was directed through the teeth at (b) Check the units of your equation . (Here f ’s
the edge of a spinning cogwheel. After traveling units of rotations per second should be taken
a distance L, it was reflected from a mirror and as inverse seconds, s−1 , since the number of
returned along the same path. The figure shows rotations in a second is a unitless count.)
the case in which the ray passes between two (c) Imagine that you are Fizeau trying to design
teeth, but when it returns, the wheel has rotated this experiment. The speed of light is a huge
by half the spacing of the teeth, so that the ray number in ordinary units. Use your equation
is blocked. When this condition is achieved, the from part a to determine whether increasing c
observer looking through the teeth toward the requires an increase in L, or a decrease. Do the
far-off mirror sees it go completely dark. Fizeau same for n and f . Based on this, decide for each
adjusted the speed of the wheel to achieve this of these variables whether you want a value that
condition and recorded the rate of rotation to is as big as possible, or as small as possible.
be f rotations per second. Let the number of (d) Fizeau used L = 8633 m, f = 12.6 s−1 , and
teeth on the wheel be n. n = 720. Plug in to your equation from part
20 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

√
a and extract the speed of light from his data. is to explain what this feature of the equation
tells us about the way speed increases as more
? distance is covered.

2-f1 On New Year’s Eve, a stupid person fires

a pistol straight up. The bullet leaves the gun
at a speed of 100 m/s. How long does it take
before the bullet hits the ground?

2-f2 A physics homework question asks, “If

you start from rest and accelerate at 1.54 m/s2
for 3.29 s, how far do you travel by the end of
that time?” A student answers as follows:

1.54 × 3.29 = 5.07 m

His Aunt Wanda is good with numbers, but has

Problem 2-c2. never taken physics. She doesn’t know the for-
mula for the distance traveled under constant ac-
celeration over a given amount of time, but she
2-e1 What is the acceleration of a car that
tells her nephew his answer cannot be right. How
moves at a steady velocity of 100 km/h for 100
does she know?
seconds? Explain your answer. [Based on a
problem by Hewitt.]
2-f3 You are looking into a deep well. It is
dark, and you cannot see the bottom. You want
2-e2 Alice drops a rock off a cliff. Bubba to find out how deep it is, so you drop a rock
shoots a gun straight down from the edge of the in, and you hear a splash 3.0 seconds later. How
same cliff. Compare the accelerations of the rock deep is the well?
√
and the bullet while they are in the air on the
way down. [Based on a problem by Serway and 2-f4 Consider the following passage from
Faughn.] Alice in Wonderland, in which Alice has been
falling for a long time down a rabbit hole:
2-e3 A toy car is released on one side of a Down, down, down. Would the fall never
piece of track that is bent into an upright U come to an end? “I wonder how many miles
shape. The car goes back and forth. When the I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I
car reaches the limit of its motion on one side, must be getting somewhere near the center of
its velocity is zero. Is its acceleration also zero?
the earth. Let me see: that would be four thou-
Explain using a v −t graph. [Based on a problem sand miles down, I think” (for, you see, Alice had
by Serway and Faughn.] learned several things of this sort in her lessons in
the schoolroom, and though this was not a very
2-e4 If an object starts accelerating from rest, good opportunity for showing off her knowledge,
we have v 2 = 2a∆x for its speed after it has as there was no one to listen to her, still it was
traveled a distance ∆x. Explain in words why good practice to say it over)...
it makes sense that the equation has velocity Alice doesn’t know much physics, but let’s try
squared, but distance only to the first power. to calculate the amount of time it would take to
Don’t recapitulate the derivation in the book, fall four thousand miles, starting from rest with
or give a justification based on units. The point an acceleration of 10 m/s2 . This is really only a
PROBLEMS 21

lower limit; if there really was a hole that deep, 2-i3 The photo shows Apollo 16 astronaut
the fall would actually take a longer time than John Young jumping on the moon and saluting
the one you calculate, both because there is air at the top of his jump. The video footage of the
friction and because gravity gets weaker as you jump shows him staying aloft for 1.45 seconds.
get deeper (at the center of the earth, g is zero, Gravity on the moon is 1/6 as strong as on the
because the earth is pulling you equally in every earth. Compute the height of the jump. √
direction at once). √

2-f5 You shove a box with initial velocity

2.0 m/s, and it stops after sliding 1.3 m. What
is the magnitude of the deceleration, assuming it
is constant? √

2-f6 You’re an astronaut, and you’ve arrived

on planet X, which is airless. You drop a hammer
from a height of 1.00 m and find that it takes 350
ms to fall to the ground. What is the acceleration
due to gravity on planet X? √

2-i1 Mr. Whiskers the cat can jump 2.0 me-

ters vertically (undergoing free-fall while in the
air). (a) What initial velocity must he have in √
Problem 2-i3.
order to jump this high?
(b) How long does it take him to reach his max-
imum height from the moment he leaves the 2-i4 Find the error in the following calcula-
√
ground? tion. A student wants to find the distance trav-
(c) From the start of the jump to the time when eled by a car that accelerates from rest for 5.0 s
he lands on the ground again, how long is he in with an acceleration of 2.0 m/s2 . First he solves
the air? a = ∆v/∆t for ∆v = 10 m/s. Then he multiplies
√
to find (10 m/s)(5.0 s) = 50 m. Do not just re-
2-i2 A baseball pitcher throws a fastball. Her calculate the result by a different method; if that
hand accelerates the ball from rest to 45.0 m/s was all you did, you’d have no way of knowing
over a distance 1.5 meters. For the purposes of which calculation was correct, yours or his.
this problem, we will make the simplifying as-
sumption that this acceleration is constant. (a)√ 2-i5 A naughty child drops a golf ball from
What is the ball’s acceleration? the roof of your apartment building, and you see
(b) How much time does it take for the pitcher √ it drop past your window. It takes the ball time
to accelerate the ball? T to traverse the window’s height H. Find the
(c) If home plate is 18.0 meters away from where initial speed of the ball when it first came into
the pitcher releases the baseball, how much total view.
√
time does the baseball take to get there, assum-
ing it moves with constant velocity as soon as it
leaves the pitcher’s hand? Include both the time 2-i6 Objects A and B, with v(t) graphs shown
required for acceleration and the time the ball in the figure, both leave the origin at time t = 0 s.
spends on the fly. When do they cross paths again? √
√
22 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

√
collision.
(e) Show that your answer to part e has units
that make sense.
(f) Show that the dependence of your answer on
the variables makes sense physically.

2-i9 You’re in your Honda on the freeway

traveling behind a Ford pickup truck. The truck
is moving at a steady speed of 30.0 m/s, you’re
Problem 2-i6. speeding at 40.0 m/s, and you’re cruising 45 me-
ters behind the Ford. At t = 0, the Ford slams
on his/her brakes, and decelerates at a rate of
5.0 m/s2 . You don’t notice this until t = 1.0 s,
2-i7 An elevator is moving upward at con-
where you begin decelerating at 10.0 m/s2 . Let
stant speed of 2.50 m/s. A bolt in the elevator’s
positive x be the direction of motion, and let
ceiling, 3.00 m above the floor, works loose and
your position be x = 0 at t = 0. The goal is
falls. (a) How long does it take for the bolt to
√ to find the motion of each vehicle and determine
fall to the floor?
whether there is a collision.
(b) What is the speed of the bolt just as it
(a) Doing this entire calculation purely numer-
hits the floor, according to an observer in the√ ically would be very cumbersome, and it would
elevator?
be difficult to tell whether you had made mis-
(c) What is the speed of the bolt just as it hits
takes. Translate the given information into alge-
the elevator’s floor, according to an observer
bra symbols, and find an equation for xF (t), the
standing on one of the floor landings of the √
√
position of the Ford as a function of time.
building?
(b) Write a similar symbolic equation for xH (t)
(for t > 1 s), the position of the Honda as a
function of time. Why isn’t this formula valid √
2-i8 You’re in your Honda, cruising on the for t < 1 s?
freeway at velocity u, when, up ahead at dis- (c) By subtracting one from the other, find an
tance L, a Ford pickup truck cuts in front of you expression for the distance between the two ve-
while moving at constant velocity u/2. Like half hicles as a function of time, d(t) (valid for t >
the speed that any reasonable person would go! 1 s until the truck stops). Does the equation
Let positive x be the direction of motion, and let d(t) = 0 have any solutions? What does this tell √
your position be x = 0 at t = 0. To avoid a col- you?
lision, you immediately slam on the brakes and (d) Because this is a fairly complicated calcula-
start decelerating with acceleration −a, where a tion, we will find the result in two different ways
is a positive constant. and check them against each other. Plug num-
(a) Write an equation for xF (t), the position of bers back in to the results of parts a and b, re-
the Ford as a function of time, as they trundle placing the symbols in the constant coefficients,
√
onward obliviously. and graph the two functions using a graphing cal-
(b) Write an equation for xH (t), the position of culator or an online utility such as desmos.com.
√
your Honda as a function of time. (e) As you should have discovered in parts c and
(c) By subtracting one from the other, find an d, the two vehicles do not collide. At what time
expression for the distance between the two ve- does the minimum distance occur, and what is
√
hicles as a function of time, d(t). that distance? √
(d) Find the minimum value of a that avoids a
PROBLEMS 23

2-i10 You’re standing on the roof of your sci- d = 4 × 1016 m. Suppose you use an acceleration
ence building, which is 10.0 meters above the of a = 10 m/s2 , just enough to compensate for
ground. You have a rock in your hand, which you the lack of true gravity and make you feel com-
can throw with a maximum speed of 10.0 m/s. fortable. How long does the round trip take, in
(a) How long would it take for the rock to hit the
√
years?
ground if you released the rock from rest? (c) Using the same numbers for d and a, find your
(b) How long would it take for the rock to hit the maximum speed. Compare this to the speed of
ground if you threw the rock straight downward? √
light, which is 3.0 × 108 m/s. (Later in this
course, you will learn that there are some new
(c) How long would it take for the rock to hit the things going on in physics when one gets close
ground if you threw the rock straight upward?√ to the speed of light, and that it is impossible to
exceed the speed of light. For now, though, just
(d) If you threw the rock straight upward, how use the simpler ideas you’ve learned so far.)√
high would it get above the ground? √
2-k1 If the acceleration of gravity on Mars is
2-i11 You’re standing on the roof of your sci- 1/3 that on Earth, how many times longer does
ence building. You drop a rock from rest and it take for a rock to drop the same distance on
notice that it takes an amount of time T to hit Mars? Ignore air resistance.
the ground. Express your answers to the follow- . Solution, p. 234
ing questions in terms of T and the acceleration 2-k2 Starting from rest, a ball rolls down a
due to gravity, g. √
ramp, traveling a distance L and picking up a
(a) How high is the building? final speed v. How much of the distance did the
(b) How fast must you throw the rock straight up √
ball have to cover before achieving a speed of
if the rock is to take 2T to hit the ground? v/2? [Based on a problem by Arnold Arons.]
(c) For the situation described in part b, how ?
long does it take from the time you let the rock go
√
2-k3 Suppose you can hit a tennis ball ver-
to when the rock reaches maximum height? tically upward with a certain initial speed, inde-
(d) For the same situation, what is the maximum pendent of what planet you’re on.
height that the rock gets to above the ground?√
(a) If the height the ball reaches on Earth is H,
what is the height the ball will reach on Pluto,
2-i12 You take a trip in your spaceship to an- where the acceleration due to gravity is about √
other star. Setting off, you increase your speed 1/15th the value on Earth?
at a constant acceleration. Once you get half- (b) If the amount of time the ball spends in the
way there, you start decelerating, at the same air on Earth is 3.0 seconds, how long would it
rate, so that by the time you get there, you have spend in the air on Pluto? √
slowed down to zero speed. You see the tourist
attractions, and then head home by the same 2-k4 You climb half-way up a tree, and drop
method. a rock. Then you climb to the top, and drop
(a) Find a formula for the time, T , required for another rock. How many times greater is the
the round trip, in terms of d, the distance from velocity of the second rock on impact? Explain.
our sun to the star, and a, the magnitude of the (The answer is not two times greater.)
acceleration. Note that the acceleration is not
constant over the whole trip, but the trip can be 2-k5 Most people don’t know that
broken up into constant-acceleration parts. Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, not Tyrannosaurus
(b) The nearest star to the Earth (other than our rex, was the biggest theropod dinosaur. We
own sun) is Proxima Centauri, at a distance of can’t put a dinosaur on a track and time it
24 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

in the 100 meter dash, so we can only infer factor of 1.9. Which deceleration is greater, and
from physical models how fast it could have by what factor? √
run. When an animal walks at a normal
pace, typically its legs swing more or less like
2-k8 In college-level women’s softball in the
pendulums of the same length `. As a further
U.S., typically a pitcher is expected to be at
simplification of this model, let’s imagine that
least 1.75 m tall, but Virginia Tech pitcher Jas-
the leg simply moves at a fixed acceleration as it
min Harrell is 1.62 m. Although a pitcher ac-
falls to the ground. That is, we model the time
tually throws by stepping forward and swing-
for a quarter of a stride cycle as being the same
ing her arm in a circle, let’s make a simplified
as the time required for free fall from a height `.
physical model to estimate how much of a disad-
S. aegyptiacus had legs about four times longer
vantage Harrell has had to overcome due to her
than those of a human. (a) Compare the time
height. We’ll pretend that the pitcher gives the
required for a human’s stride cycle to that for √ ball a constant acceleration in a straight line, and
S. aegyptiacus.
that the length of this line is proportional to the
(b) Compare their running speeds. √ pitcher’s height. Compare the acceleration Har-
rell would have to supply with the acceleration
2-k6 Engineering professor Qingming Li used that would suffice for a pitcher of the nominal
sensors and video cameras to study punches de- minimum height, if both were to throw a pitch
livered in the lab by British former welterweight at the same speed. √
boxing champion Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton.
For comparison, Li also let a TV sports reporter 2-k9 When the police engage in a high-speed
put on the gloves and throw punches. The time chase on city streets, it can be extremely danger-
it took for Hatton’s best punch to arrive, i.e., the ous both to the police and to other motorists and
time his opponent would have had to react, was pedestrians. Suppose that the police car must
about 0.47 of that for the reporter. Let’s assume travel at a speed that is limited by the need to
that the fist starts from rest and moves with con- be able to stop before hitting a baby carriage,
stant acceleration all the way up until impact, and that the distance at which the driver first
at some fixed distance (arm’s length). Compare sees the baby carriage is fixed. Tests show that
Hatton’s acceleration to the reporter’s. √ in a panic stop from high speed, a police car
based on a Chevy Impala has a deceleration 9%
greater than that of a Dodge Intrepid. Compare
2-k7 Aircraft carriers originated in World
the maximum safe speeds for the two cars. √
War I, and the first landing on a carrier was per-
formed by E.H. Dunning in a Sopwith Pup bi-
plane, landing on HMS Furious. (Dunning was 2-n1 The figure shows a practical, simple
killed the second time he attempted the feat.) experiment for determining g to high precision.
In such a landing, the pilot slows down to just Two steel balls are suspended from electromag-
above the plane’s stall speed, which is the min- nets, and are released simultaneously when the
imum speed at which the plane can fly without electric current is shut off. They fall through un-
stalling. The plane then lands and is caught by equal heights ∆x1 and ∆x2 . A computer records
cables and decelerated as it travels the length of the sounds through a microphone as first one
the flight deck. Comparing a modern US F-14 ball and then the other strikes the floor. From
fighter jet landing on an Enterprise-class carrier this recording, we can accurately determine the
to Dunning’s original exploit, the stall speed is quantity T defined as T = ∆t2 − ∆t1 , i.e., the
greater by a factor of 4.8, and to accomodate time lag between the first and second impacts.
this, the length of the flight deck is greater by a Note that since the balls do not make any sound
PROBLEMS 25

Problem 2-n2.

2-n2 Some fleas can jump as high as 30 cm.

The flea only has a short time to build up speed
— the time during which its center of mass is ac-
celerating upward but its feet are still in contact
with the ground. Make an order-of-magnitude
Problem 2-k5. estimate of the acceleration the flea needs to have
while straightening its legs, and state your an-
swer in units of g, i.e., how many “g’s it pulls.”
(For comparison, fighter pilots black out or die
when they are released, we have no way of mea- if they exceed about 5 or 10 g’s.)
suring the individual times ∆t2 and ∆t1 . ?
(a) Find an equation for g in terms of the mea- √
sured quantities T , ∆x1 and ∆x2 . 2-n3 The speed required for a low-earth or-
(b) Check the units of your equation. bit is 7.9 × 103 m/s. When a rocket is launched
(c) Check that your equation gives the correct re- into orbit, it goes up a little at first to get above
sult in the case where ∆x1 is very close to zero. almost all of the atmosphere, but then tips over
However, is this case realistic? horizontally to build up to orbital speed. Sup-
(d) What happens when ∆x1 = ∆x2 ? Discuss pose the horizontal acceleration is limited to 3g
this both mathematically and physically. to keep from damaging the cargo (or hurting the
? crew, for a crewed flight). (a) What is the mini-
mum distance the rocket must travel downrange
before it reaches orbital speed? How much does
it matter whether you take into account the ini-
tial eastward velocity due to the rotation of the
earth? (b) Rather than a rocket ship, it might
be advantageous to use a railgun design, in which
the craft would be accelerated to orbital speeds
along a railroad track. This has the advantage
that it isn’t necessary to lift a large mass of fuel,
since the energy source is external. Based on
your answer to part a, comment on the feasibil-
ity of this design for crewed launches from the
earth’s surface.
Problem 2-n1. ?
26 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

2-n4 When an object slides frictionlessly

down a plane inclined at an angle θ, its accelera-
tion equals g sin θ (p. 16). Suppose that a person
on a bike is to coast down a ramp, starting from
rest, and then coast back up an identical ramp,
tracing a “V.” The horizontal distance is fixed
to be 2w, and we want to set the depth of the
“V” so as to achieve the minimal possible value
t∗ for the total time.
(a) Based only on units, infer the form of the
expression for t∗ in terms of w, up to a unitless
multiplicative constant. Problem 2-o1.
(b) Find the angle that minimizes the time.
(c) Complete the determination of t∗ by finding
the unitless constant. 2-o2 The top part of the figure shows the
. Solution, p. 234 ? position-versus-time graph for an object moving
2-n5 The figure shows a circle in a vertical in one dimension. On the bottom part of the fig-
plane, with two wires positioned along chords of ure, sketch the corresponding v-versus-t graph.
the circle. The top of each wire coincides with
the top of the circle. Beads slide frictionlessly on
the wires. If the beads are released simultane-
ously at the top, which one wins the race? You
will need the fact that the acceleration equals
g sin θ (p. 16).
?

Problem 2-o2.

2-o3 For each of the two graphs, find the

change in position ∆x from beginning to end.
√

2-o4 The graph represents the velocity of a

bee along a straight line. At t = 0, the bee is at
the hive. (a) When is the bee farthest from the
Problem 2-n5. hive? (b) How far is the bee at its farthest point
from the hive? (c) At t = 13 s, how far is the
bee from the hive? √
2-o1 The graph represents the motion of a
ball that rolls up a hill and then back down. 2-o5 Decide whether the following statements
When does the ball return to the location it had about one-dimensional motion are true or false:
at t = 0? (a) The area under a v(t) curve gives the accel-
eration of the object.
PROBLEMS 27

Problem 2-o4.

the slope from the right side, but doesn’t quite

have enough speed to make it over the top.

Problem 2-o6.

2-o7 You throw a rubber ball up, and it falls

and bounces several times. Draw graphs of po-
sition, velocity, and acceleration as functions of
Problem 2-o3. time.

2-p1 (a) Express the chain rule in Leibniz

(b) The area under a a(t) curve gives the change (“d”) notation, and show that it always results
in velocity of the object. in an answer whose units make sense.
(c) The slope of a a(t) curve at time T is the (b) An object has a position as a function of
value v(T ). time given by x = A cos(bt), where A and b
(d) The slope of the v(t) curve at time T is the are constants. Infer the units of A and b, and
value a(T ). interpret their physical meanings.
(e) The displacement ∆x from t1 to t2 is equal (c) Find the velocity of this object, and check
to the area under the a(t) curve from t1 to t2 . that the chain rule has indeed given an answer
with the right units.

2-o6 (a) The ball is released at the top of the 2-p2 In July 1999, Popular Mechanics carried
ramp shown in the figure. Friction is negligible. out tests to find which car sold by a major auto
Use physical reasoning to draw v − t and a − t maker could cover a quarter mile (402 meters)
graphs. Assume that the ball doesn’t bounce at in the shortest time, starting from rest. Because
the point where the ramp changes slope. (b) Do the distance is so short, this type of test is de-
the same for the case where the ball is rolled up signed mainly to favor the car with the greatest
28 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION

acceleration, not the greatest maximum speed maximum speed. (c) Check that your answer has
(which is irrelevant to the average person). The the right units. √
winner was the Dodge Viper, with a time of 12.08
s. The car’s top (and presumably final) speed 2-p7 Let t be the time that has elapsed since
was 118.51 miles per hour (52.98 m/s). (a) If the Big Bang. In that time, one would imagine
a car, starting from rest and moving with con- that light, traveling at speed c, has been able to
stant acceleration, covers a quarter mile in this travel a maximum distance ct. (In fact the dis-
time interval, what is its acceleration? (b) What tance is several times more than this, because
would be the final speed of a car that covered a according to Einstein’s theory of general rela-
quarter mile with the constant acceleration you tivity, space itself has been expanding while the
found in part a? (c) Based on the discrepancy ray of light was in transit.) The portion of the
between your answer in part b and the actual universe that we can observe would then be a
final speed of the Viper, what do you conclude sphere of radius ct, with volume v = (4/3)πr3 =
about how its acceleration changed over time? (4/3)π(ct)3 . Compute the rate dv/ dt at which
. Solution, p. 234 ? the volume of the observable universe is increas-
2-p3 A honeybee’s position as a function of ing, and check that your answer has the right
time is given by x = 10t−t3 , where t is in seconds units. √
and x in meters. What is its velocity at t = 3.0
s? √ 2-p8 Sometimes doors are built with mech-
anisms that automatically close them after they
2-p4 Objects A and B move along the x axis. have been opened. The designer can set both the
The acceleration of both objects as functions of strength of the spring and the amount of friction.
time is given by a(t) = (3.00 m/s3 )t. Object If there is too much friction in relation to the
A starts (at t = 0) from rest at the origin, and strength of the spring, the door takes too long
object B starts at x = 5.00 m, initially moving to close, but if there is too little, the door will
in the negative x direction with speed 9.00 m/s.
√ oscillate. For an optimal design, we get motion
(a) What is A’s velocity at time t = 2.00 s? √ of the form x = cte−bt , where x is the position of
(b) What is A’s position at the same time? √ some point on the door, and c and b are positive
(c) What is B’s velocity at the same time? √ constants. (Similar systems are used for other
(d) What is B’s position at the same time? mechanical devices, such as stereo speakers and
(e) Consider a frame of reference in which A is the recoil mechanisms of guns.) In this exam-
at rest, such as the frame that would naturally ple, the door moves in the positive direction up
be adopted by an observer moving along with A. until a certain time, then stops and settles back
Describe B’s motion in this frame. in the negative direction, eventually approach-
(f) After they start, is there any time at which ing x = 0. This would be the type of motion we
A and B collide? would get if someone flung a door open and the
door closer then brought it back closed again.
2-p5 The position of a particle moving on the (a) Infer the units of the constants b and c.
x-axis is described by the equation x(t) = t3 −4t2 (b) Find the door’s maximum speed (i.e., the
(with x in meters and t in seconds). Consider the greatest absolute value of its velocity) as it comes
√
times t = −1, 0, 1, 2, and 3 seconds. For which back to the closed position.
of these times is the particle slowing down? (c) Show that your answer has units that make
sense.
2-p6 Freddi Fish(TM) has a position as a func- ?
tion of time given by x = a/(b + t2 ). (a) Infer 2-p9 A person is parachute jumping. During
the units of the constants a and b. (b) Find her the time between when she leaps out of the plane
PROBLEMS 29

and when she opens her chute, her altitude is

given by an equation of the form

y = b − c t + ke−t/k ,

where e is the base of natural logarithms, and b,

c, and k are constants. Because of air resistance,
her velocity does not increase at a steady rate as
it would for an object falling in vacuum.
(a) What units would b, c, and k have to have
for the equation to make sense?
(b) Find the person’s velocity, v, as a function of
time. [You will need to use the chain rule, and √
the fact that d(ex )/ dx = ex .]
(c) Use your answer from part (b) to get an in-
terpretation of the constant c. [Hint: e−x ap-
proaches zero for large values of x.]
(d) Find the person’s acceleration, a, as a func-√
tion of time.
(e) Use your answer from part (d) to show that
if she waits long enough to open her chute, her
acceleration will become very small.
?
30 CHAPTER 2. KINEMATICS IN ONE DIMENSION
3 Kinematics in three dimensions
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems 180-degree rotation. The orientation of the card
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although is not a scalar, because it changes under a rota-
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- tion, but it’s not a vector, because it doesn’t be-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is have the way an arrow would under a 180-degree
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to rotation.
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- In kinematics, the simplest example of a vector
pose of the summary is to show what material is is a motion from one place to another, called a
needed in order to do the problems, and to show displacement vector.
what terminology and notation are being used. A vector A has a magnitude |A|, which means
its size, length, or amount. Rotating a vector
can change the vector, but will never change its
3.1 Vectors magnitude.
Scalars are just numbers, and we do arithmetic
Most of the things we want to measure in
on them in the usual way. Vectors are differ-
physics fall into two categories, called vectors
ent. Vectors can be added graphically by placing
and scalars. A scalar is something that doesn’t
them tip to tail, and then drawing a vector from
change when you turn it around, while a vector
the tail of the first vector to the tip of the second
does change when you rotate it, and the way in
vector. A vector can be multiplied by a scalar to
which it changes is the same as the way in which
give a new vector. For instance, if A is a vector,
a pointer such as a pencil or an arrow would
then 2A is a vector that has the same direction
change. For example, temperature is a scalar:
but twice the magnitude. Multiplying by −1 is
a hot cup of coffee doesn’t change its tempera-
the same as flipping the vector, −A = (−1)A.
ture when we turn it around. Force is a vector.
Vector subtraction can be accomplished by flip-
When I play tug-of-war with my dog, her force
ping and adding.
and mine are the same in strength, but they’re
in opposite directions. If we swap positions, our
forces reverse their directions, just as a pair of
arrows would.

Figure 3.2: Graphical addition of vectors.

Figure 3.1: Temperature is a scalar. Force is a
vector. Suppose that a sailboat undergoes a displace-
ment h while moving near a pier. We can de-
To distinguish vectors from scalars, we write fine a number called the component of h parallel
them differently, e.g., p for a scalar and bold- to the pier, which is the distance the boat has
face p for a vector. In handwriting, a vector is moved along the pier, ignoring an motion toward
written with an arrow over it, →
−p. or away from the pier. If we arbitrarily define
Not everything is a scalar or a vector. For one direction along the pier as positive, then the
example, playing cards are designed in a sym- component has a sign.
metric way, so that they look the same after a Often it is convenient to work with compo-

31
32 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

nents of a vector along the coordinate axes. If not have been so obvious, if we had defined ad-
we pick a Cartesian coordinate system with x, y, dition in terms of addition of components.
and z axes, then any vector can be specified ac-
cording to its x, y, and z components. We have
Dot and cross product
previously given a graphical definition for vector
addition. This is equivalent to adding compo- The vector dot product A · B is defined as the
nents. (signed) component of A parallel to B. It is a
scalar. If we know the magnitudes of the vectors
Unit vector notation and the angle θAB between them, we can com-
pute the dot product as |A||B| cos θAB . If we
Suppose we want to tell someone that a cer- know the components of the vectors in a partic-
tain vector A in two dimensions has components ular coordinate system, we can express the dot
Ax = 3 and Ay = 7. A more compact way of no- product as Ax Bx + Ay By + Az Bz .
tating this is A = 3x̂ + 7ŷ, where x̂ and ŷ, read The dot product is useful simply as a geomet-
“x-hat” and “y-hat,” are the vectors with mag- rical tool, but later in this course we will also
nitude one that point in the positive x and y see that it has physical applications that include
directions. Some authors notate the unit vectors mechanical work, as well as many examples in
as î, ĵ, and k̂ rather than x̂, ŷ, and ẑ. electricity and magnetism, such as electric flux.
There is also a way of multiplying two vectors
Rotational invariance to obtain a vector result. This is called the vector
cross product, C = A×B. The magnitude of the
Certain vector operations are useful and others
cross product is the area of the parallelogram il-
are not. Consider the operation of multiplying
lustrated in figure 3.3. The direction of the cross
two vectors component by component to produce
product is perpendicular to the plane in which
a third vector:
A and B lie. There are two such directions, and
Rx = Px Qx of these two, we choose the one defined by the
right-hand rule illustrated in figure 3.4.
Ry = Py Qy
Rz = Pz Qz .

This operation will never be useful in physics be-

cause it can give different results depending on
our choice of coordinates. That is, if we change
our coordinate system by rotating the axes, then
the resulting vector R will of course have differ-
ent components, but these will not (except in ex-
ceptional cases) be the components of the same
vector expressed in the new coordinates. We say Figure 3.3: The magnitude of the cross product
that this operation is not rotationally invariant. is the area of the shaded parallelogram.
The universe doesn’t come equipped with co-
ordinates, so if any vector operation is to be use- Important physical applications of the cross
ful in physics, it must be rotationally invariant. product include torque, angular momentum, and
Vector addition, for example, is rotationally in- magnetic forces.
variant, since we can define it using tip-to-tail Unlike ordinary multiplication of real num-
graphical addition, and this definition doesn’t bers, the cross product is anticommutative, A ×
even refer to any coordinate system. This rota- B = −B × A. The magnitude of the cross prod-
tional invariance would still have held, but might uct can be expressed as |A||B| sin θAB . In terms
3.2. MOTION 33

Figure 3.5: The racing greyhound’s velocity vec-

Figure 3.4: The right-hand rule for the direction tor is in the direction of its motion, i.e., tangent
of the vector cross product. to its curved path.

of the components, we have point in the direction of motion. It points in the

direction that an accelerometer would point, as
Cx = Ay Bz − By Az in figure 3.6.
Cy = Az Bx − Bz Ax
Cz = Ax By − Bx Ay .

3.2 Motion
Velocity and acceleration
If an object undergoes an infinitesimal displace- Figure 3.6: The car has just swerved to the right.
ment dr in an infinitesimal time interval dt, then The air freshener hanging from the rear-view
its velocity vector is the derivative v = dr/ dt. mirror acts as an accelerometer, showing that
This type of derivative of a vector can be com- the acceleration vector is to the right.
puted by differentiating each component sepa-
rately. The acceleration is the second derivative
d2 r/ dt2 .
Projectiles and the inclined plane
The velocity vector has a magnitude that in-
dicates the speed of motion, and a direction that Forces cause accelerations, not velocities. In par-
gives the direction of the motion. We saw in sec- ticular, the downward force of gravity causes a
tion 2.1 that velocities add in relative motion. downward acceleration vector. After a projec-
To generalize this to more than one dimension, tile is launched, the only force on it is gravity,
we use vector addition. so its acceleration vector points straight down.
The acceleration vector does not necessarily Therefore the horizontal part of its motion has
34 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

constant velocity. The vertical and horizontal

motions of a projectile are independent. Neither
affects the other.
PROBLEMS 35

Problems same place. What are the distance and direc- √

tion from the right-hand hole to the top one?
3-a1 The figure shows vectors A and B.
Graphically calculate the following.
A + B, A − B, B − A, −2B, A − 2B
No numbers are involved.

Problem 3-a4.

3-a5 Suppose someone proposes a new op-

Problem 3-a1. eration in which a vector A and a scalar B are
added together to make a new vector C like this:

3-a2 Phnom Penh is 470 km east and 250 Cx = Ax + B

km south of Bangkok. Hanoi is 60 km east and Cy = Ay + B
1030 km north of Phnom Penh.
Cz = Az + B
(a) Choose a coordinate system, and translate
these data into ∆x and ∆y values with the Prove that this operation won’t be useful in
proper plus and minus signs. physics, because it’s not rotationally invariant.
(b) Find the components of the ∆r vector √
pointing from Bangkok to Hanoi.
3-d1 Find the angle between the following
two vectors:
3-a3 If you walk 35 km at an angle 25◦
counterclockwise from east, and then 22 km x̂ + 2ŷ + 3ẑ
at 230◦ counterclockwise from east, find the 4x̂ + 5ŷ + 6ẑ
distance and direction from your starting point
√ √
to your destination.

3-d2 Let a and b be any two numbers (not

3-a4 A machinist is drilling holes in a piece both zero), and let u = ax̂ + bŷ. Suppose we
of aluminum according to the plan shown in want to find a (nonzero) second vector v in the
the figure. She starts with the top hole, then x-y plane that is perpendicular to u. Use the
moves to the one on the left, and then to the vector dot product to write down a condition for
one on the right. Since this is a high-precision v to satisfy, find a suitable v, and check using
job, she finishes by moving in the direction and the dot product that it is indeed a solution.
at the angle that should take her back to the
top hole, and checks that she ends up in the
36 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

3-g1 Find a vector that is perpendicular to 3-g6 Find three vectors with which you can
both of the following two vectors: demonstrate that the vector cross product need
not be associative, i.e., that A × (B × C) need
x̂ + 2ŷ + 3ẑ not be the same as (A × B) × C.
4x̂ + 5ŷ + 6ẑ
√ 3-g7 Can the vector cross product be gen-
eralized to four dimensions? The generalization
3-g2 Which of the following expressions make should, like the three-dimensional version, take
sense, and which are nonsense? For those that two vectors as inputs, give a vector as an out-
make sense, indicate whether the result is a vec- put, and be rotationally invariant. (This is of
tor or a scalar. real-world interest because Einstein’s theory of
(a) (A × B) × C relativity can be interpreted as describing time
(b) (A × B) · C as a kind of fourth dimension.)
(c) (A · B) × C ?
3-g8 A certain function f takes two vectors
3-g3 Vector A = (3.0x̂ − 4.0ŷ) meters, and as inputs and gives an output that is also a vec-
vector B = (5.0x̂ + 12.0ŷ) meters. Find the fol- tor. The function can be defined in such a way
√ that it is rotationally invariant, and it is also well
lowing: (a) The magnitude of vector A−2B. √
(b) The dot product A · B. defined regardless of the units of the vectors. It
(c) The cross product A × B (expressing the re- takes on the following values for the following
√ inputs:
sult in terms of its components). √
(d) The value of (A + B) · (A − B).
f (x̂, ŷ) = −ẑ
(e) The angle between the two vectors. √
f (2x̂, ŷ) = −8ẑ
3-g4 Prove the anticommutative property of f (x̂, 2ŷ) = −2ẑ
the vector cross product, A×B = −B×A, using
Prove that the given information uniquely deter-
the expressions for the components of the cross
mines f , and give an explicit expression for it.
product. Note that giving an example does not
?
constitute a proof of a general rule.
3-j1 Annie Oakley, riding north on horseback
at 30 mi/hr, shoots her rifle, aiming horizon-
3-g5 Label the following statements about tally and to the northeast. The muzzle speed
vectors as true or false. of the rifle is 140 mi/hr. When the bullet hits
(a) The angle between ax̂ + bŷ and bx̂ + aŷ is a defenseless fuzzy animal, what is its speed of
zero. impact? Neglect air resistance, and ignore the
(b) The three vectors A, B, and A + B form a vertical motion of the bullet.
triangle.
(c) The three vectors A, B, and A − B form a 3-j2 As shown in the figure, you wish to
triangle. cross a river and arrive at a dock that is directly
(d) The cross product between two vectors is al- across from you, but the river’s current will tend
ways perpendicular to each of the two vectors. to carry you downstream. To compensate, you
(e) If the angle between two vectors is greater must steer the boat at an angle. Find the an-
than 90◦ , then the dot product between the two gle θ, given the magnitude, |v |, of the water’s
WL
vectors is negative. velocity relative to the land, and the maximum
(f) A unit vector has magnitude 1 (and no units). speed, |v |, of which the boat is capable rela-
BW
tive to the water.
PROBLEMS 37

Problem 3-j7.

3-j4 A border collie and a rottweiler, both

initially at the same location, start chasing two
different objects. The border collie starts chas-
ing a stick thrown in the x̂ + ŷ direction, and the
rottweiler starts chasing your neighbor in the −ŷ
direction. Both dogs move at speed v. For both
parts of this problem, give your results as exact
expressions, not decimal approximations.
(a) What is the velocity of the rottweiler as mea- √
sured by the border collie?
(b) How long does it take for the distance be-
tween the two dogs to be D? √

3-j5 A plane can fly at u = 150 m/s with re-

Problem 3-j2.
spect to the air, and the wind is from the south-
west at v = 50 m/s.
(a) In what direction should the plane head in
. Solution, p. 234 order to fly directly north (with respect to the
3-j3 It’s a calm day in Los Angeles with no ground)? Give the angle in degrees west of north.
√
wind. You’re in your car on the Ventura Free-
way going 105 km/hour when it starts to rain. (b) What is the plane’s speed as measured by an
You notice out the driver’s side window that the observer on the ground? √
raindrops make an angle of 70◦ with respect to
the vertical. 3-j6 A plane flies toward a city directly north
(a) What is the speed of the raindrops as mea- and a distance D away. The wind speed is u,
and the plane’s speed with respect to the wind
sured by someone at rest relative to the freeway?
√
is v.
(b) What is the speed of the raindrops as mea- (a) If the wind is blowing from the west (towards
sured by you? the east), what direction should the plane head
38 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

√
(what angle west of north)? need to run some distance along the far bank in
(b) How long does it take the plane to get to the
√
order to get to the town. Show that, surprisingly,
city? the optimal angle depends on the variables v and
(c) Check that your answer to part b has units w only through their sum v + w.
that make sense. ?
(d) Comment on the behavior of your answer in 3-m1 Is it possible for a helicopter to have an
the case where u = v. acceleration due east and a velocity due west? If
so, what would be going on? If not, why not?
3-j7 As shown in the diagram, a dinosaur
fossil is slowly moving down the slope of a glacier 3-m2 The figure shows the path followed by
under the influence of wind, rain and gravity. Hurricane Irene in 2005 as it moved north. The
At the same time, the glacier is moving relative dots show the location of the center of the storm
to the continent underneath. The dashed lines at six-hour intervals, with lighter dots at the time
represent the directions but not the magnitudes when the storm reached its greatest intensity.
of the velocities. Pick a scale, and use graphical Find the time when the storm’s center had a ve-
addition of vectors to find the magnitude and the locity vector to the northeast and an acceleration
direction of the fossil’s velocity relative to the vector to the southeast. Explain.
continent. You will need a ruler and protractor.
√
3-m3 A bird is initially flying horizontally
3-j8 Andrés and Brenda are going to race to east at 21.1 m/s, but one second later it has
see who can first get to a town across a river of changed direction so that it is flying horizontally
width 20.0 m. The water in the river is moving and 7◦ north of east, at the same speed. What
at a constant 0.60 m/s, each person can swim are the magnitude and direction of its accelera-
with speed 1.00 m/s with respect to the water, tion vector during that one second time interval?
and each person can run 4.00 m/s on land. (Assume its acceleration was roughly constant.)
√
Andrés is going to row in such a way that he
moves straight towards the town across the river. 3-m4 Two cars go over the same speed bump
Brenda, however, decides to get to the other side in a parking lot, Maria’s Maserati at 25 miles
of the river as quickly as she can, and run. per hour and Park’s Porsche at 37. How many
(a) How long does it take Andrés to swim to the √ times greater is the vertical acceleration of the
other side of the river? Call this TA Porsche? Hint: Remember that acceleration de-
(b) How long does it take Brenda to get to the pends both on how much the velocity changes
other side of the river (not at the town, since the
√ and on how much time it takes to change. √
river carries her downstream)? Call this t1 .
(c) How long does it take Brenda to run to the 3-p1 Two daredevils, Wendy and Bill, go over
town on the other side of the river? Call this √Niagara Falls. Wendy sits in an inner tube, and
t2 . lets the 30 km/hr velocity of the river throw her
(d) How long (TB = t1 + t2 ) does the total trip out horizontally over the falls. Bill paddles a
take Brenda? Who wins the race? √ kayak, adding an extra 10 km/hr to his velocity.
They go over the edge of the falls at the same
3-j9 César is on one bank of a river in which moment, side by side. Ignore air friction. Ex-
the water flows at speed w. He can swim at speed plain your reasoning.
u and run at speed v. On the other side, directly (a) Who hits the bottom first?
across from him, is a town that he wants to reach (b) What is the horizontal component of
in the minimum possible time. Depending on the Wendy’s velocity on impact?
direction in which he chooses to swim, he may (c) What is the horizontal component of Bill’s
PROBLEMS 39

Problem 3-s2.

functions of time.
(c) Give physical interpretations of b, c, d, x̂, ŷ,
and ẑ.

3-s2 A baseball pitcher throws a pitch clocked

at vx = 73.3 miles/hour. He throws horizontally.
By what amount, d, does the ball drop by the
time it reaches home plate, L = 60.0 feet away?
(a) First find a symbolic answer in terms of L,
√
vx , and g.
(b) Plug in and find a numerical answer. Express
Problem 3-m2.
your answer in units of ft. (Note: 1 foot=12
inches, 1 mile=5280 feet, and 1 inch=2.54 cm)
√

velocity on impact? 3-s3 You’re running off a cliff into a pond.

(d) Who is going faster on impact? The cliff is h = 5.0 m above the water, but the
cliff is not strictly vertical; it slopes down to the
3-p2 At the 2010 Salinas Lettuce Festival Pa- pond at an angle of θ = 20◦ with respect to the
rade, the Lettuce Queen drops her bouquet while vertical. You want to find the minimum speed
riding on a float moving toward the right. Sketch you need to jump off the cliff in order to land in
the shape of its trajectory in her frame of refer- the water.
ence, and compare with the shape seen by one of (a) Find a symbolic answer in terms of h, θ, and √
her admirers standing on the sidewalk. g.
(b) Check that the units of your answer to part
3-s1 A gun is aimed horizontally to the west. a make sense.
The gun is fired, and the bullet leaves the muz- (c) Check that the dependence on the variables
zle at t = 0. The bullet’s position vector as a g, h, and θ makes sense, and check the special
function of time is r = bx̂ + ctŷ + dt2 ẑ, where b, cases θ = 0 and θ = 90◦ .
c, and d are positive constants. (d) Plug in numbers to find the numerical √
(a) What units would b, c, and d need to have result.
for the equation to make sense?
(b) Find the bullet’s velocity and acceleration as
40 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

Problem 3-s12.

√
reaches?
(c) What is the range of the ball (the horizon-
tal distance the ball has traveled by the time it
lands)? √

3-s6 (a) A ball is thrown straight up with

velocity v. Find an equation for the height to √
which it rises.
(b) Generalize your equation for a ball thrown
Problem 3-s3.
at an angle θ above horizontal, in which case its
initial velocity components are vx = v cos θ and
√
vy = v sin θ.
3-s4 A batter hits a baseball at speed v, at
an angle θ above horizontal.
(a) Find an equation for the range (horizontal 3-s7 The first time he played golf, now-
distance to where the ball falls), R, in terms of deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is
the relevant variables. Neglect air friction and said to have gotten 11 holes in one. Suppose
the height of the ball above the ground when it that his son, Kim Jong-Un, wants to top his fa-
is hit. ther’s feat by hitting a golf ball all the way from
(b) Interpret your equation in the cases of θ=0 Pyongyang to Seoul, a distance of 195 km. Ignor-
and θ = 90◦ . ing air resistance and the curvature of the earth,
(c) Find the angle that gives the maximum how fast does he need to hit the ball? Note that
range. the maximum range (assuming no air resistance)
is achieved for a launch angle of 45◦ .
3-s5 A tennis ball is thrown from the ground
with speed 15 m/s at an angle of 45◦ above the 3-s8 Two footballs, one white and one green,
horizontal. are on the ground and kicked by two differ-
(a) How long is the ball in the air (from the throw
√
ent footballers. The white ball, which is kicked
to when it lands on the ground)? straight upward with initial speed v0 , rises to
(b) What is the maximum height that the ball height H. The green ball is hit with twice the
PROBLEMS 41

initial speed but reaches the same height. or decrease it. Then see whether your answer to
(a) What is the y-component of the green ball’s part a has this mathematical behavior.
initial velocity vector? Give your answer in √
(d) Do the same for the dependence on h.
terms of v0 alone. (e) Interpret your equation in the case where
(b) Which ball is in the air for a longer amount α = 90◦ .
of time? (f) Interpret your equation in the case where
(c) What is the range of the green ball? Your tan α = h/`.
answer should only depend on H. √
(g) Find u numerically if h = 70 cm, ` = 60 cm,
√
and α = 65◦ .
3-s9 You throw a rock horizontally from the
edge of the roof of a building of height 10.0 m.
The rock hits the ground at exactly twice its ini- 3-s13 A particle leaves point P at time t = 0 s
tial speed. How fast was the rock thrown off the with initial velocity (−2.0x̂ + 4.0ŷ) m/s. Point
roof? Express your answer to three significant P is located on the x axis at position (x, y) =
figures. √
(10.0 m, 0). If the particle experiences constant
acceleration a = (−5.0ŷ) m/s2 , then which axis
3-s10 You throw a rock horizontally from the does it cross first, x or y, and at what location?
edge of the roof of a building of height h with
speed v0 . What is the (positive) angle between 3-s14 A Hot Wheels car is rolling along a
the final velocity vector and the horizontal when horizontal track at speed v0 = 6.0 m/s. It then
the rock hits the ground? √
comes to a ramp inclined at an angle θ = 30◦
above the horizontal, and the car undergoes a
2
3-s11 Standing on the edge of the roof of a deceleration of g sin θ = 4.9 m/s when moving
building of height h, you throw a rock with speed along the ramp. The track ends at the top of
v0 at 30◦ above the horizontal. the ramp, so the car is launched into the air. By
(a) How high above the ground does the rock the time the car reaches the top of the ramp, its
√
get? speed has gone down to 3.0 m/s.
(b) How far away from the building does the rock (a) How high is the top of the ramp (vertical √
land? height, not distance along the ramp)?
√
(b) After the car is achieves lift-off, how long
3-s12 The figure shows an arcade game does it spend in the air before hitting the
called skee ball that is similar to bowling. The ground? √
player rolls the ball down a horizontal alley.
The ball then rides up a curved lip and is 3-s15 A Hot Wheels car is rolling along a
launched at an initial speed u, at an angle α horizontal track at speed v0 . It then comes to a
above horizontal. Suppose we want the ball to ramp inclined at an angle θ above the horizon-
go into a hole that is at horizontal distance ` tal. The car undergoes a deceleration of g sin θ
and height h, as shown in the figure. while rolling up the ramp. The track ends after
(a) Find the initial speed u that is required, in a distance L, so the car is launched into the air.
√
terms of the other variables and g. (a) What is the speed of the car when it leaves √
(b) Check that your answer to part a has units the ramp?
that make sense. (b) How high does the car get above the ground?
√
(c) Check that your answer to part a depends
on g in a way that makes sense. This means 3-s16 The figure shows a vertical cross-
that you should first determine on physical section of a cylinder. A gun at the top shoots a
grounds whether increasing g should increase u, bullet horizontally. What is the minimum speed
42 CHAPTER 3. KINEMATICS IN THREE DIMENSIONS

at which the bullet must be shot in order to com-

pletely clear the cylinder?
?

Problem 3-s16.

3-s17 A battleship has a gun that fires shells

with muzzle velocity u, and the gunner wants
to hit an enemy ship at range L. The gun is
to be fired at some angle θ above the horizon-
tal. Find the two possible values of θ that are
possible under normal conditions. Under what
conditions are there one solution or no solutions
at all? To what extent is the form of the solution
determined by units?
4 Newton’s laws, part 1
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems A force refers to a direct cause, not an indirect
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although one. A pool player makes a force on the cue stick,
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- but not on the cue ball.
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is To finish defining what we mean by a force, we
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to need to say how we would measure a force nu-
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- merically. In the right-hand side, the stretching
pose of the summary is to show what material is of a spring is a measure of the hand’s force. The
needed in order to do the problems, and to show SI unit of force is the newton (N), which we will
what terminology and notation are being used. see later is actually defined in a convenient way
in terms of the base units of the SI. Force is a
vector.
4.1 Newton’s first law
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) originated the idea
of explaining all events, both on earth and in
the heavens, using a set of simple and universal
mathematical laws. His three laws talk about
forces, so what is a force?
In figure 4.1, the legendary Baron von Mun-
chausen lifts himself and his horse out of a
swamp by pulling up on his own pigtail. This
is not actually possible, because an object can’t Figure 4.2: Forces.
accelerate by exerting a force on itself. A force
is always an interaction between two objects.
Suppose that we can prevent any forces at all
from acting on an object, perhaps by moving it
far away from all other objects, or surrounding
it with shielding. (For example, there is a nickel-
iron alloy marketed as “mu-metal” which blocks
magnetic forces very effectively.) Newton’s first
law states that in this situation, the object has a
zero acceleration vector, i.e., its velocity vector
is constant. If the object is already at rest, it
remains at rest. If it is already in motion, it
remains in motion at constant speed in the same
direction.
Newton’s first law is a more detailed and quan-
titative statement of the law of inertia. The first
law holds in an inertial frame of reference; in
fact, this is just a restatement of what we mean
Figure 4.1: Escaping from a swamp. by an inertial frame.
The first law may not seem very useful for ap-
The left side of figure 4.2 shows a hand making plications near the earth’s surface, since an ob-
a force on a rope. Two objects: hand and rope. ject there will always be subject at least to the

43
44 CHAPTER 4. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 1

motion. Since the SI unit of mass is the kilo-

gram, it follows from Newton’s second law that
the newton is related to the base units of the SI
as 1 N = 1 kg·m/s2 .
The force that the earth’s gravity exerts on
an object is called its weight, which is not the
same thing as its mass. An object of mass m has
weight mg (problem 4-a1, p. 46).

Figure 4.3: The four forces on the sailboat cancel 4.3 Newton’s third law
out.
We have seen that a force is always an interaction
force of gravity. But the first law can also be ex- between two objects. Newton’s third law states
tended to apply to cases in which forces do act that these forces come in pairs. If object A exerts
on an object, but they cancel out. An example a force on object B, then B also exerts a force on
is the sailboat in figure 4.3. A. The two forces have equal magnitudes but are
An object can rotate or change its shape. A in opposite directions. In symbols,
cat does both of these things when it falls and
brings its feet under itself before it hits the FA on B = −FB on A . (4.2)
ground. In such a situation, it is not immedi-
ately obvious what is meant by “the” velocity Newton’s third law holds regardless of whether
of the object. We will see later that Newton’s everything is in a state of equilibrium. It might
first law can still be made to hold in such cases seem as though the two forces would cancel out,
if we measure its motion by using a special point but they can’t cancel out because it doesn’t even
called its center of mass, which is the point on make sense to add them in the first place. They
which it would balance. In the example of Baron act on different objects, and it only makes sense
von Munchausen, it is certainly possible for one to add forces if they act on the same object.
part of his body to accelerate another part of
his body by making a force on it; however, this
will have no effect on the motion of his center of
mass.

4.2 Newton’s second law

Newton’s second law tells us what happens when
the forces acting on an object do not cancel out.
The object’s acceleration is then given by
Ftotal
a= , (4.1)
m
Figure 4.4: Newton’s third law does not mean
where Ftotal is the vector sum of all the forces, that forces always cancel out so that nothing
and m is the object’s mass. Mass is a perma- can ever move. If these two ice skaters, initially
nent property of an object that measures its in- at rest, push against each other, they will both
ertia, i.e., how much it resists a change in its move.
4.3. NEWTON’S THIRD LAW 45

The pair of forces related by Newton’s third

law are always of the same type. For example,
the hand in the left side of figure 4.2 makes a fric-
tional force to the right on the rope. Newton’s
third law tells us that the rope exerts a force
on the hand that is to the left and of the same
strength. Since one of these forces is frictional,
the other is as well.
46 CHAPTER 4. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 1

Problems The student says that since the climber is mov-

ing down, the sum of the two upward forces must
4-a1 (a) Why would it not make sense to be slightly less than the downward force of grav-
say that the force of gravity acting on an object ity.
equals g? Correct all mistakes in the above analysis.
(b) Why would it not make sense to say that the
force of gravity acting on an object of mass m
equals m?
(c) Use Newton’s second law to prove that the
magnitude of the gravitational force acting on an
object of mass m equals mg.
. Solution, p. 234
4-a2 You are given a large sealed box, and
are not allowed to open it. Which of the follow-
ing experiments measure its mass, and which
measure its weight? [Hint: Which experiments
would give different results on the moon?]
(a) Put it on a frozen lake, throw a rock at it,
and see how fast it scoots away after being hit.
(b) Drop it from a third-floor balcony, and
measure how loud the sound is when it hits the
ground.
(c) As shown in the figure, connect it with a
spring to the wall, and watch it vibrate.

. Solution, p. 235

Problem 4-a4.
Problem 4-a2.
4-a5 A car is accelerating forward along a
4-a3 (a) Compare the mass of a one-liter wa- straight road. If the force of the road on the
ter bottle on earth, on the moon, and in inter- car’s wheels, pushing it forward, is a constant
stellar space. 3.0 kN, and the car’s mass is 1000 kg, then how
(b) Do the same for its weight. long will the car take to go from 20 m/s to 50
m/s?
4-a4 In the figure, the rock climber has fin- . Solution, p. 235
ished the climb, and his partner is lowering him 4-a6 An object is observed to be moving at
back down to the ground at approximately con- constant speed in a certain direction. Can you
stant speed. The following is a student’s analysis conclude that no forces are acting on it? Explain.
of the forces acting on the climber. The arrows [Based on a problem by Serway and Faughn.]
give the directions of the forces.
force of the earth’s gravity, ↓ 4-a7 A book is pushed along a frictionless
force from the partner’s hands, ↑ table with a constant horizontal force. The book
force from the rope, ↑ starts from rest and travels 2.0 m in 1.0 s. If
PROBLEMS 47

the same force continues, how far will the book car is slowing down, she notices that according
travel in the next 1.0 s? √
to the scale, her weight appears to be off by 3%
from its normal value W . √
4-d1 A blimp is initially at rest, hovering, (a) Does the scale read 0.97W , or 1.03W ?
when at t = 0 the pilot turns on the engine driv- (b) What is the magnitude of the acceleration of
ing the propeller. The engine cannot instantly the elevator? √
get the propeller going, but the propeller speeds
up steadily. The steadily increasing force be- 4-g3 A person who normally weighs 890 N is
tween the air and the propeller is given by the standing on a scale inside an elevator. The eleva-
equation F = kt, where k is a constant. If the tor is moving upward with a speed of 10 m/s, and
mass of the blimp is m, find its position as a func- then begins to decelerate at a rate of 5.0 m/s2 .
tion of time. (Assume that during the period of (a) Before the elevator begins to decelerate, what √
time you’re dealing with, the blimp is not yet is the reading on the scale?
moving fast enough to cause a significant back- (b) What about while the elevator is slowing
ward force due to air resistance.) down? √
√

4-g4 A bullet of mass m is fired from a pistol,

accelerating from rest to a speed v in the barrel’s
length L.
(a) What is the force on the bullet? (Assume √
this force is constant.)
(b) Check that the units of your answer to part
a make sense.
Problem 4-d1. (c) Check that the dependence of your answer on
each of the three variables makes sense.

4-g1 The acceleration of a 1.0 kg object is 4-g5 You push a cup of mass M across a ta-
given in the graph. ble, using a force of magnitude F . Because of
(a) What is the maximum force that acts on the√ a second, frictional force, the cup’s acceleration
object over the time interval [0.0, 4.0] s? only has magnitude F/3M . What is the magni-
(b) What is the average force over the same in- tude of this frictional force? √
terval? √
4-g6 In an experiment, a force is applied to
two different unknown masses. This force causes
the first object, with mass m1 , to have accel-
eration a1 , and gives an object of mass m2 an
acceleration a2 , where a1 > a2 .
(a) Which mass is heavier: m1 or m2 ?
(b) Based on the experimental data (a1 and a2 ),
what acceleration would the force give to an ob-
Problem 4-g1. ject of mass m1 + m2 ? √

4-j1 At low speeds, every car’s acceleration

4-g2 Flaca has brought a bathroom scale with is limited by traction, not by the engine’s power.
her in an elevator and is standing on it. Just Suppose that at low speeds, a certain car is nor-
before the elevator arrives at the top floor, as the mally capable of an acceleration of 3 m/s2 . If
48 CHAPTER 4. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 1

it is towing a trailer with half as much mass as

the car itself, what acceleration can it achieve?
[Based on a problem from PSSC Physics.]

4-j2 The tires used in Formula 1 race cars can

generate traction (i.e., force from the road) that
is as much as 1.9 times greater than with the
tires typically used in a passenger car. Suppose
that we’re trying to see how fast a car can cover a
fixed distance starting from rest, and traction is
the limiting factor. By what factor is this time
reduced when switching from ordinary tires to Problem 4-j3.
Formula 1 tires? √

4-j3 At the turn of the 20th century, Samuel and that all other conditions are the same ex-
Langley engaged in a bitter rivalry with the cept for gravity. How much higher should he be √
Wright brothers to develop human flight. Lan- able to jump in Mexico City?
gley’s design used a catapult for launching. For (Actually, the reason for the big change between
safety, the catapult was built on the roof of a ’64 and ’68 was the introduction of the “Fosbury
houseboat, so that any crash would be into the flop.”)
water. This design required reaching cruising
speed within a fixed, short distance, so large 4-j5 Your friend, who’s kind of an idiot,
accelerations were required, and the forces fre- jumps out of a third-story window. After falling
quently damaged the craft, causing dangerous 7.0 m, he lands on his stomach so that as his
and embarrassing accidents. Langley achieved body compresses on impact, his center of mass
several uncrewed, unguided flights, but never only moves 0.020 m. What is the average force of
succeeded with a human pilot. If the force of the ground on your friend as he smacks the floor?
the catapult is fixed by the structural strength Express your answer in terms of his weight √ W.
of the plane, and the distance for acceleration by
the size of the houseboat, by what factor is the 4-j6 A book is pushed along a frictionless ta-
launch velocity reduced when the plane’s 340 kg ble with a constant horizontal force. The book
is augmented by the 60 kg mass of a small man?√ starts from rest and travels 2.0 m in 1.0 s. If the
same experiment is carried out again, but with
4-j4 In the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, the best a book having twice the mass, how far will this
men’s high jump was 2.18 m. Four years later in heavier book travel? √
Mexico City, the gold medal in the same event
was for a jump of 2.24 m. Because of Mex- 4-m1 In each case, identify the force that
ico City’s altitude (2400 m), the acceleration causes the acceleration, and give its Newton’s-
of gravity there is lower than that in Tokyo by third-law partner. Describe the effect of the
about 0.01 m/s2 . Suppose a high-jumper has a partner force. (a) A swimmer speeds up. (b) A
mass of 72 kg. golfer hits the ball off of the tee. (c) An archer
(a) Compare his mass and weight in the two lo- fires an arrow. (d) A locomotive slows down.
cations. . Solution, p. 235
(b) Assume that he is able to jump with the 4-m2 A little old lady and a pro football
same initial vertical velocity in both locations, player collide head-on. Compare their forces on
PROBLEMS 49

each other, and compare their accelerations. Ex- Shake the object up and down. What do you
plain. observe? Interpret your observations in terms of
Newton’s third law.
?
4-p1 (a) Let T be the maximum tension that
an elevator’s cable can withstand without break-
ing, i.e., the maximum force it can exert. If the
motor is programmed to give the car an acceler-
ation a (a > 0 is upward), what is the maximum
mass that the car can have, including passengers,
√
if the cable is not to break?
(b) Interpret the equation you derived in the spe-
cial cases of a = 0 and of a downward accelera-
tion of magnitude g.

Problem 4-m2. 4-p2 While escaping from the palace of the

evil Martian emperor, Sally Spacehound jumps
from a tower of height h down to the ground.
4-m3 The earth is attracted to an object with Ordinarily the fall would be fatal, but she fires
a force equal and opposite to the force of the her blaster rifle straight down, producing an
earth on the object. If this is true, why is it that upward force of magnitude FB . This force is
when you drop an object, the earth does not have insufficient to levitate her, but it does cancel
an acceleration equal and opposite to that of the out some of the force of gravity. During the
object? time t that she is falling, Sally is unfortunately
exposed to fire from the emperor’s minions, and
4-m4 When you stand still, there are two can’t dodge their shots. Let m be her mass, and
forces acting on you, the force of gravity (your g the strength of gravity on Mars.
weight) and the normal force of the floor push- (a) Find the time t in terms of the other
ing up on your feet. Are these forces equal and variables.
opposite? Does Newton’s third law relate them (b) Check the units of your answer to part a.
to each other? Explain. (c) For sufficiently large values of FB , your
answer to part a becomes nonsense — explain √
4-m5 Some garden shears are like a pair of what’s going on.
scissors: one sharp blade slices past another. In
the “anvil” type, however, a sharp blade presses
against a flat one rather than going past it. A 4-p3 A helicopter of mass m is taking off
gardening book says that for people who are not vertically. The only forces acting on it are the
very physically strong, the anvil type can make earth’s gravitational force and the force, Fair , of
it easier to cut tough branches, because it con- the air pushing up on the propeller blades.
centrates the force on one side. Evaluate this (a) If the helicopter lifts off at t = 0, what is its
claim based on Newton’s laws. [Hint: Consider vertical speed at time t?
the forces acting on the branch, and the motion (b) Check that the units of your answer to part
of the branch.] a make sense.
? (c) Discuss how your answer to part a depends
4-m6 Pick up a heavy object such as a back- on all three variables, and show that it makes
pack or a chair, and stand on a bathroom scale. sense. That is, for each variable, discuss what
50 CHAPTER 4. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 1

would happen to the result if you changed it

while keeping the other two variables constant.
Would a bigger value give a smaller result, or a
bigger result? Once you’ve figured out this math-
ematical relationship, show that it makes sense
physically.
(d) Plug numbers into your equation from part
a, using m = 2300 kg, Fair = 27000 N, and
t = 4.0 s. √
Problem 4-p6.
4-p4 A uranium atom deep in the earth spits
out an alpha particle. An alpha particle is a
fragment of an atom. This alpha particle has 4-s1 When I cook rice, some of the dry grains
initial speed v, and travels a distance d before always stick to the measuring cup. To get them
stopping in the earth. out, I turn the measuring cup upside-down and
(a) Find the force, F , from the dirt that stopped hit the “roof” with my hand so that the grains
the particle, in terms of v, d, and its mass, m. come off of the “ceiling.” (a) Explain why static
Don’t plug in any numbers yet. Assume that √ friction is irrelevant here. (b) Explain why grav-
the force was constant. ity is negligible. (c) Explain why hitting the cup
(b) Show that your answer has the right units. works, and why its success depends on hitting
(c) Discuss how your answer to part a depends the cup hard enough.
on all three variables, and show that it makes ?
sense. That is, for each variable, discuss what
would happen to the result if you changed it
while keeping the other two variables constant.
Would a bigger value give a smaller result, or 4-s2 The following reasoning leads to an ap-
a bigger result? Once you’ve figured out this parent paradox; explain what’s wrong with the
mathematical relationship, show that it makes logic. A baseball player hits a ball. The ball
sense physically. and the bat spend a fraction of a second in con-
(d) Evaluate your result for m = 6.7 × 10−27 kg, √ tact. During that time they’re moving together,
v = 2.0 × 104 km/s, and d = 0.71 mm. so their accelerations must be equal. Newton’s
third law says that their forces on each other are
also equal. But a = F/m, so how can this be,
4-p5 A car is pushing a truck from behind. since their masses are unequal? (Note that the
The car has mass M , and the truck has mass paradox isn’t resolved by considering the force of
3M . If the maximum force that the ground can the batter’s hands on the bat. Not only is this
provide to the cars’ tires is F , what is the max- force very small compared to the ball-bat force,
imum force between the two vehicles? Assume but the batter could have just thrown the bat at
no other horizontal forces act on the truck. √ the ball.)
?
4-p6 Blocks of mass M1 , M2 , and M3 are
stacked on a table as shown in the figure. Let
the upward direction be positive. √
(a) What is the force on block 2 from block 3?
(b) What is the force on block 2 from block√1?
5 Newton’s laws, part 2
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems Star Wars fans would then probably want to call
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although “The Force.”
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- Nevertheless, there is a practical classification
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is of forces that works pretty well for objects on
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to the human scale, and that is usually more con-
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- venient. Figure ?? on p. ?? shows this scheme
pose of the summary is to show what material is in the form of a tree.
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.
5.2 Friction
5.1 Classification of forces If you push a refrigerator across a kitchen floor,
A fundamental and still unsolved problem in you will find that as you make more and more
physics is the classification of the forces of na- force, at first the fridge doesn’t move, but that
ture. Ordinary experience suggests to us that eventually when you push hard enough, it un-
forces come in different types, which behave dif- sticks and starts to slide. At the moment of un-
ferently. Frictional forces seem clearly different sticking, static friction turns into kinetic friction.
from magnetic forces. Experiments support the following approximate
But some forces that appear distinct are ac- model of friction when the objects are solid, dry,
tually the same. For instance, the friction that and rigid. We have two unitless coefficients µs
holds a nail into the wall seems different from and µk , which depend only on the types of sur-
the kind of friction that we observe when flu- faces. The maximum force of static friction is
ids are involved — you can’t drive a nail into a limited to
waterfall and make it stick. But at the atomic Fs ≤ µs FN , (5.1)
level, both of these types of friction arise from
where FN is the normal force between the sur-
atoms bumping into each other. The force that
faces, i.e., the amount of force with which they
holds a magnet on your fridge also seems differ-
are being pressed together. Kinetic friction is
ent from the force that makes your socks cling
given by
together when they come out of the dryer, but
it was gradually realized, starting around 1800 Fk = µk FN . (5.2)
and culminating with Einstein’s theory of rela-
tivity in 1905, that electricity and magnetism are
actually closely related things, and observers in 5.3 Elasticity
different states of motion do not even agree on
what is an electric force and what is a magnetic When a force is applied to a solid object, it will
one. The tendency has been for more and more change its shape, undergoing some type of de-
superficially disparate forces to become unified formation such as flexing, compression, or ex-
in this way. pansion. If the force is small enough, then this
Today we have whittled the list down to only change is proportional to the force, and when the
three types of interactions at the subatomic level force is removed the object will resume its orig-
(called the gravitational, electroweak, and strong inal shape. A simple example is a spring being
forces). It is possible that some future theory of stretched or compressed. If the spring’s relaxed
physics will reduce the list to only one — which length is x0 , then its length x is related to the

51
52 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

Figure 5.1: A practical classification scheme for forces.

5.4. ROPES, PULLEYS, TENSION, AND SIMPLE MACHINES 53

force applied to it by Hooke’s law, For an idealized system,1 the fundamental prin-
ciples are:
F ≈ k(x − x0 ). (5.3)
1. The total force acting on any pulley is zero.2
2. The tension in any given piece of rope is
constant throughout its length.
3. The length of every piece of rope remains
the same.

Figure 5.2: Hooke’s law.

Figure 5.3: A complicated pulley system. The
bar is massless.

As an example, let us find the mechanical ad-

5.4 Ropes, pulleys, tension, vantage T5 /F of the pulley system shown in fig-
and simple machines ure 5.3. By rule 2, T1 = T2 , and by rule 1,
F = T1 + T2 , so T1 = T2 = F/2. Similarly,
If you look carefully at a piece of rope or yarn T3 = T4 = F/4. Since the bar is massless, the
while tightening it, you will see a physical change same reasoning that led to rule 1 applies to the
in the fibers. This is a manifestation of the fact bar as well, and T5 = T1 + T3 . The mechanical
that there is tension in the rope. Tension is a advantage is T5 /F = 3/4, i.e., this pulley system
scalar with units of newtons. For a rope of neg- reduces the input force.
ligible mass, the tension is constant throughout
the rope, and it equals the magnitudes of the
forces at its ends. This is still true if the rope 5.5 Analysis of forces
goes around a frictionless post, or a massless pul-
ley with a frictionless axle. You can’t push with Newton’s second law refers to the total force act-
a rope, you can only pull. A rigid object such ing on a particular object. Therefore whenever
as a pencil can, however, sustain compression, we want to apply the second law, a necessary pre-
which is equivalent to negative tension. liminary step is to pick an object and list all the
forces acting on it. In addition, it may be help-
A pulley is an example of a simple machine,
ful to determine the types and directions of the
which is a device that can amplify a force by
forces and also to identify the Newton’s-third-
some factor, while reducing the amount of mo-
law partners of those forces, i.e., all the forces
tion by the inverse of that factor. Another ex-
that our object exerts back on other things.
ample of a simple machine is the gear system on
1 In such a system: (1) The ropes and pulleys have
a bicycle.
negligible mass. (2) Friction in the pulleys’ bearings is
We can put more than one simple machine to- negligible. (3) The ropes don’t stretch.
gether in order to give greater amplification of 2 F = ma, and m = 0 since the pulley’s mass is as-

forces or to redirect forces in different directions. sumed to be negligible.

54 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

force acting on Fifi force related to it by Newton’s third

law
planet earth’s gravitational force Fifi’s gravitational force on earth,
FW = mg on Fifi, ↓ ↑
belt’s kinetic frictional force Fk on Fifi’s kinetic frictional force on
Fifi, → belt, ←
belt’s normal force FN on Fifi, ↑ Fifi’s normal force on belt, ↓

Table 5.1: Analysis of the forces on the dog.

Figure 5.4: The spy dog lands on the moving

conveyor belt.

As an example, consider figure 5.4. Fifi is an

industrial espionage dog who loves doing her job
and looks great doing it. She leaps through a
window and lands at initial horizontal speed vo
on a conveyor belt which is itself moving at the
greater speed vb . Unfortunately the coefficient
of kinetic friction µk between her foot-pads and
the belt is fairly low, so she skids, and the effect
on her coiffure is un désastre. Table 5.1 shows
the resulting analysis of the forces in which she
participates.
PROBLEMS 55

Problems
5-d2 For safety, mountain climbers often
In problems 5-a1-5-a5, analyze the forces using a wear a climbing harness and tie in to other
table in the format shown in section 5.5 on p. 53. climbers on a rope team or to anchors such as
Analyze the forces in which the italicized object pitons or snow anchors. When using anchors,
participates. the climber usually wants to tie in to more than
5-a1 Some people put a spare car key in a lit- one, both for extra strength and for redundancy
tle magnetic box that they stick under the chassis in case one fails. The figure shows such an
of their car. Let’s say that the box is stuck di- arrangement, with the climber hanging from a
rectly underneath a horizontal surface, and the pair of anchors forming a symmetric “Y” at an
car is parked. (See instructions above.) angle θ. The metal piece at the center is called a
carabiner. The usual advice is to make θ < 90◦ ;
5-a2 Analyze two examples of objects at rest for large values of θ, the stress placed on the
relative to the earth that are being kept from anchors can be many times greater than the
falling by forces other than the normal force. Do actual load L, so that two anchors are actually
not use objects in outer space, and do not du- less safe than one.
plicate problem 5-a1 or 5-a5. (See instructions (a) Find the force S at each anchor in terms of √
above.) L and θ.
(b) Verify that your answer makes sense in the
5-a3 A person is rowing a boat, with her feet case of θ = 0.
braced. She is doing the part of the stroke that (c) Interpret your answer in the case of θ = 180◦ .
propels the boat, with the ends of the oars in the (d) What is the smallest value of θ for which S
water (not the part where the oars are out of the equals or exceeds L, so that for larger angles a
water). (See instructions above.) failure of at least one anchor is more likely than
√
it would have been with a single anchor?
5-a4 A farmer is in a stall with a cow when
the cow decides to press him against the wall,
pinning him with his feet off the ground. Analyze 5-d3 Problem 5-d2 discussed a possible
the forces in which the farmer participates. (See correct way of setting up a redundant anchor
instructions above.) for mountaineering. The figure for this problem
shows an incorrect way of doing it, by arranging
5-a5 A propeller plane is cruising east at the rope in a triangle (which we’ll take to be
constant speed and altitude. (See instructions isoceles). One of the bad things about the
above.) triangular arrangement is that it requires more
force from the anchors, making them more
5-a6 Someone tells you she knows of a certain likely to fail. (a) Using the same notation as in
√
type of Central American earthworm whose skin, problem 5-d2, find S in terms of L and θ.
when rubbed on polished diamond, has µk > µs . (b) Verify that your answer makes sense in the
Why is this not just empirically unlikely but log- case of θ = 0, and compare with the correct
ically suspect? setup.
?
5-d1 The figure shows a boy hanging in three
positions: (1) with his arms straight up, (2) with 5-d4 A person of mass M stands in the mid-
his arms at 45 degrees, and (3) with his arms at dle of a tightrope, which is fixed at the ends to
60 degrees with respect to the vertical. Compare two buildings separated by a horizontal distance
the tension in his arms in the three cases. L. The rope sags in the middle, stretching and
56 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

Problem 5-d4.

Problem 5-a3. Problem 5-a4.

lengthening the rope slightly.

(a) If the tightrope walker wants the rope to sag
vertically by no more than a height h, find the
minimum tension, T , that the rope must be able
to withstand without breaking, in terms of h, g, √
M , and L. Problem 5-a5.
(b) Based on your equation, explain why it is
not possible to get h = 0, and give a physical
interpretation. (b) On an asteroid, where g can be thousands of
times lower than on Earth, would rubble be able
5-d5 The angle of repose is the maximum to lie at a steeper angle of repose?
slope on which an object will not slide. On air-
less, geologically inert bodies like the moon or an 5-d6 Your hand presses a block of mass m
asteroid, the only thing that determines whether against a wall with a force FH acting at an angle
dust or rubble will stay on a slope is whether the θ, as shown in the figure. Find the minimum and
slope is less steep than the angle of repose. maximum possible values of |FH | that can keep
(a) Find an equation for the angle of repose, the block stationary, in terms of m, g, θ, and
deciding for yourself what are the relevant vari- µs , the coefficient of static friction between the
ables. block and the wall. Check both your answers in
PROBLEMS 57

Problem 5-d1.

Problem 5-d3.

Problem 5-d6.

Problem 5-d2. increases exponentially with the number of turns

of rope, and find an expression for that ratio.
√
??
the case of θ = 90◦ , and interpret the case where 5-d9 The figure shows a mountaineer doing
the maximum force is infinite. √ a vertical rappel. Her anchor is a big boulder.
? The American Mountain Guides Association
5-d7 A telephone wire of mass m is strung suggests as a rule of thumb that in this situa-
between two poles, making an angle θ with the tion, the boulder should be at least as big as a
horizontal at each end. (a) Find the tension at √ refrigerator, and should be sitting on a surface
the center. that is horizontal rather than sloping. The goal
(b) Which is greater, the tension at the center or of this problem is to estimate what coefficient
at the ends? of static friction µs between the boulder and
? the ledge is required if this setup is to hold the
5-d8 The photo shows a coil of rope wound person’s body weight. For comparison, reference
around a smooth metal post. A large amount of books meant for civil engineers building walls
tension is applied at the bottom of the coil, but out of granite blocks state that granite on
only a tiny force, supplied by a piece of sticky granite typically has a µs ≈ 0.6. We expect
tape, is needed at the top to keep the rope from the result of our calculation to be much less
slipping. Show that the ratio of these two forces than this, both because a large margin of safety
58 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

Problem 5-d7.

Problem 5-d8. Problem 5-d9.

is desired and because the coefficient could be to one another. This position can be maintained
much lower if, for example, the surface was without any ledges or holds, simply by pressing
sandy rather than clean. We will assume that the feet against the walls. The left hand is be-
there is no friction where the rope goes over the ing used just for a little bit of balance. (a) Find
lip of the cliff, although in reality this friction the minimum coefficient of friction between the
significantly reduces the load on the boulder. rubber climbing shoes and the rock. (b) Inter-
(a) Let m be the mass of the climber, V the pret the behavior of your expression at extreme
volume of the boulder, ρ its density, and g the values of θ. (c) Steven Won has done tabletop
strength of the gravitational field. Find the experiments using climbing shoes on the rough
√ back side of a granite slab from a kitchen coun-
minimum value of µs .
(b) Show that the units of your answer make tertop, and has estimated µs = 1.17. Find the
sense. corresponding maximum value of θ.
(c) Check that its dependence on the variables . Solution, p. 235
makes sense. 5-g1 The figure shows two different ways of
(d) Evaluate your result numerically. The combining a pair of identical springs, each with
volume of my refrigerator is about 0.7 m3 , spring constant k. We refer to the top setup as
the density of granite is about 2.7 g/cm3 , and parallel, and the bottom one as a series arrange-
standards bodies use a body mass of 80 kg for √ ment.
testing climbing equipment. (a) For the parallel arrangement, analyze the
forces acting on the connector piece on the left,
and then use this analysis to determine the
5-d10 The figure shows a rock climber equivalent spring constant of the whole setup.
wedged into a dihedral or “open book” consisting Explain whether the combined spring constant
of two vertical walls of rock at an angle θ relative should be interpreted as being stiffer or less stiff.
PROBLEMS 59

Young’s modulus are about 1010 to 1011 . What

units would the Young’s modulus have in the SI
(meter-kilogram-second) system?

5-g4 This problem depends on the results of

problems 5-g1 and 5-g3, whose solutions are in
the back of the book. When atoms form chemi-
cal bonds, it makes sense to talk about the spring
constant of the bond as a measure of how “stiff”
it is. Of course, there aren’t really little springs
— this is just a mechanical model. The purpose
of this problem is to estimate the spring con-
stant, k, for a single bond in a typical piece of
solid matter. Suppose we have a fiber, like a hair
or a piece of fishing line, and imagine for simplic-
ity that it is made of atoms of a single element
stacked in a cubical manner, as shown in the fig-
Problem 5-d10.
ure, with a center-to-center spacing b. A typical
value for b would be about 10−10 m.
(a) Find an equation for k in terms of b, and
(b) For the series arrangement, analyze the forces in terms of the Young’s modulus, E, defined in
acting on each spring and figure out the same problem 16 and its solution.
things. (b) Estimate k using the numerical data given in
problem 5-g3.
(c) Suppose you could grab one of the atoms in
a diatomic molecule like H2 or O2 , and let the
other atom hang vertically below it. Does the
bond stretch by any appreciable fraction due to
gravity?
?

Problem 5-g1.

5-g2 Generalize the results of problem 5-g1

to the case where the two spring constants are
unequal.
?
5-g3 (a) Using the solution of problem 5-g1,
which is given in the back of the book, predict
how the spring constant of a fiber will depend on
its length and cross-sectional area. Problem 5-g4.
(b) The constant of proportionality is called the
Young’s modulus, E, and typical values of the
60 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

5-j1 A cargo plane has taken off from a tiny equation for v(t) (without plugging in numbers),
airstrip in the Andes, and is climbing at con- and plot the result. √
stant speed, at an angle of θ = 17◦ with re-
spect to horizontal. Its engines supply a thrust
5-m1 Ice skaters with masses m1 and m2
of Fthrust = 200 kN, and the lift from its wings is
push off from each other with a constant force
Flift = 654 kN. Assume that air resistance (drag)
F , which lasts until they lose contact. The
is negligible, so the only forces acting are thrust,
distance between their centers of mass is `0
lift, and weight. What is its mass, in kg?
initially and `f when they lose contact.
(a) Find the amount of time T for which they
remain in contact.
(b) Show that your answer in part a has units
that make sense.
(c) Show that your answer has the right depen-
dence on F .
(d) Interpret the case where one of the masses
is very small.
Problem 5-j1.
. Solution, p. 235
5-m2 A wagon is being pulled at constant
5-j2 A toy manufacturer is playtesting teflon
speed up a slope θ by a rope that makes an angle
booties that slip on over your shoes. In the park-
φ with the vertical.
ing lot, giggling engineers find that when they
(a) Assuming negligible friction, show that the
start with an initial speed of 1.2 m/s, they glide
tension in the rope is given by the equation
for 2.0 m before coming to a stop. What is the
coefficient of friction between the asphalt and the sin θ
booties? FT = FW ,
√ sin(θ + φ)

where FW is the weight force acting on the

5-j3 A small piece of styrofoam packing ma- wagon.
terial is dropped from rest at a height 2.00 m (b) Interpret this equation in the special cases of
above the ground at time t = 0. The magnitude φ = 0 and φ = 180◦ − θ.
of its acceleration is given by a = g − bv, where v
is the speed of the styrofoam, g = 9.8 m/s2 , and
b is a positive constant. After falling 0.500 m,
the styrofoam effectively reaches terminal speed
and then takes 5.00 s more to reach the ground.
(a) What is the acceleration (magnitude and di-
rection) when t = 0? What about when the
styrofoam is halfway to the ground?
(b) Find the terminal speed of the styrofoam. √

(c) What is the value of the constant b, with√

units?
(d) What is the acceleration when the speed is
√ Problem 5-m2.
0.150 m/s?
(e) Write a = dv/ dt and solve the differential
PROBLEMS 61

5-m3 Today’s tallest buildings are really not

that much taller than the tallest buildings of the
1940’s. One big problem with making an even
taller skyscraper is that every elevator needs its
own shaft running the whole height of the build-
ing. So many elevators are needed to serve the
building’s thousands of occupants that the el-
evator shafts start taking up too much of the
space within the building. An alternative is to
have elevators that can move both horizontally
and vertically: with such a design, many eleva-
tor cars can share a few shafts, and they don’t
get in each other’s way too much because they
can detour around each other. In this design, it
becomes impossible to hang the cars from cables,
so they would instead have to ride on rails which
they grab onto with wheels. Friction would keep
them from slipping. The figure shows such a fric- Problem 5-m3.
tional elevator in its vertical travel mode. (The
wheels on the bottom are for when it needs to
√
switch to horizontal motion.) b.
(a) If the coefficient of static friction between (b) For angles below a certain minimum angle
rubber and steel is µs , and the maximum mass θmin , the equation gives a result that is not
of the car plus its passengers is M , how much mathematically meaningful. Find an equation
force must there be pressing each wheel against for θmin , and give a physical explanation of
√
the rail in order to keep the car from slipping? √ what is happening for θ < θmin .
(Assume the car is not accelerating.)
(b) Show that your result has physically reason-
able behavior with respect to µs . In other words,
if there was less friction, would the wheels need 5-m5 Driving down a hill inclined at an an-
to be pressed more firmly or less firmly? Does gle θ with respect to horizontal, you slam on the
your equation behave that way? brakes to keep from hitting a deer. Your antilock
brakes kick in, and you don’t skid.
(a) Analyze the forces. (Ignore rolling resistance
and air friction.)
5-m4 A skier of mass m is coasting down (b) Find the car’s maximum possible decelera-
a slope inclined at an angle θ compared to tion, a (expressed as a positive number), in terms √
horizontal. Assume for simplicity that the of g, θ, and the relevant coefficient of friction.
treatment of kinetic friction given in chapter (c) Explain physically why the car’s mass has no
5 is appropriate here, although a soft and wet effect on your answer.
surface actually behaves a little differently. The (d) Discuss the mathematical behavior and phys-
coefficient of kinetic friction acting between the ical interpretation of your result for negative val-
skis and the snow is µk , and in addition the skier ues of θ.
experiences an air friction force of magnitude (e) Do the same for very large positive values of
bv 2 , where b is a constant. θ.
(a) Find the maximum speed that the skier will
attain, in terms of the variables m, g, θ, µk , and
62 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

5-m6 An ice skater builds up some speed,

and then coasts across the ice passively in a
straight line. (a) Analyze the forces, using a
table in the format shown in section 5.5.
(b) If his initial speed is v, and the coefficient
of kinetic friction is µk , find the maximum
theoretical distance he can glide before coming √
to a stop. Ignore air resistance. Problem 5-m8.
(c) Show that your answer to part b has the
right units.
(d) Show that your answer to part b depends
5-m9 A ramp of length L is inclined at angle
on the variables in a way that makes sense
θ to the horizontal. You would like to push your
physically.
backpack, which has mass m, to the top of the
(e) Evaluate your answer numerically for
ramp. The coefficient of kinetic friction between
µk = 0.0046, and a world-record speed of 14.58
the backpack and the ramp is µk , and you will
m/s. (The coefficient of friction was measured
push the backpack with a force of magnitude F .
by De Koning et al., using special skates worn √ (a) How long will it take the backpack to reach
by real speed skaters.)
the top of the ramp if you apply your push par-
(f) Comment on whether your answer in part √
allel to the ramp’s surface?
e seems realistic. If it doesn’t, suggest possible
(b) How long will it take the backpack to reach
reasons why.
the top of the ramp if you apply your push par-
allel to the the ground? √

5-m7 A cop investigating the scene of an acci- 5-m10 Blocks M1 and M2 are stacked as
dent measures the length L of a car’s skid marks shown, with M2 on top. M2 is connected by a
in order to find out its speed v at the beginning string to the wall, and M1 is pulled to the right
of the skid. Express v in terms of L and any with a force F big enough to get M1 to move.
other relevant variables. √ The coefficient of kinetic friction has the same
value µk among all surfaces (i.e., the block-block
5-m8 A force F is applied to a box of mass M and ground-block interfaces).
at an angle θ below the horizontal (see figure). (a) Analyze the forces in which each block par-
The coefficient of static friction between the box ticipates, as in section 5.5. √
and the floor is µs , and the coefficient of kinetic (b) Determine the tension in the string.
friction between the two surfaces is µk . (c) Find the acceleration of the block of mass
(a) What is the magnitude of the normal force M1 . √
√
on the box from the floor?
(b) What is the minimum value of F to get the √
box to start moving from rest?
(c) What is the value of F so that the box will
move with constant velocity (assuming it is al- √
ready moving)?
(d) If θ is greater than some critical angle θcrit ,
it is impossible to have the scenario described in
part c. What is θcrit ? √
Problem 5-m10.
PROBLEMS 63

5-m11 (a) A mass M is at rest on a fixed, mesh like gears in a gear train. A board is laid
frictionless ramp inclined at angle θ with respect on top of the wheels, so that two friction forces
to the horizontal. The mass is connected to the act upon it, one from each wheel. Characterize
force probe, as shown. What is the reading on √
the three qualitatively different types of motion
the force probe? that the board can exhibit, depending on the ini-
(b) Check that your answer to part a makes sense tial conditions.
in the special cases θ = 0 and θ = 90◦ . ??

Problem 5-m13.
Problem 5-m11.
5-p1 A tugboat of mass m pulls a ship of mass
5-m12 You are pushing a box up a ramp that M , accelerating it. The speeds are low enough
is at an angle θ with respect to the horizontal. that you can ignore fluid friction acting on their
Friction acts between the box and the ramp, with hulls, although there will of course need to be
coefficient µ. Suppose that your force is fixed in fluid friction acting on the tug’s propellers.
magnitude, but can be applied at any desired (a) Analyze the forces in which the tugboat par-
angle ϕ above the horizontal. Find the optimal ticipates, using a table in the format shown in
value of ϕ. section 5.5. Don’t worry about vertical forces.
√
? (b) Do the same for the ship.
(c) If the force acting on the tug’s propeller is F ,
what is the tension, T , in the cable connecting
the two ships? [Hint: Write down two equations,
one for Newton’s second law applied to each ob-
ject. Solve these for the two unknowns T and √
a.]
(d) Interpret your answer in the special cases of
M = 0 and M = ∞.

5-p2 Unequal masses M and m are sus-

pended from a pulley as shown in the figure.
Problem 5-m12. (a) Analyze the forces in which mass m par-
ticipates, using a table in the format shown in
section 5.5. [The forces in which the other mass
5-m13 Two wheels of radius r rotate in the participates will of course be similar, but not
same vertical plane with angular velocities +Ω numerically the same.]
and −Ω (rates of rotation in radians per sec- (b) Find the magnitude of the accelerations of
ond) about axes that are parallel and at the same the two masses. [Hints: (1) Pick a coordinate
height. The wheels touch one another at a point system, and use positive and negative signs con-
on their circumferences, so that their rotations sistently to indicate the directions of the forces
64 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

and accelerations. (2) The two accelerations of to stop. Both m and M continue accelerating,
the two masses have to be equal in magnitude with M dropping down into the crevasse and m
but of opposite signs, since one side eats up rope being dragged across the snow, slowed only by
at the same rate at which the other side pays it the kinetic friction with coefficient µk acting be-
out. (3) You need to apply Newton’s second law tween the ax and the snow. There is no signifi-
twice, once to each mass, and then solve the two cant friction between the rope and the lip of the
equations for the unknowns: the acceleration, a, √
crevasse. √
and the tension in the rope, T .] (a) Find the acceleration a.
(c) Many people expect that in the special (b) Check the units of your result.
case of M = m, the two masses will naturally (c) Check the dependence of your equation on
settle down to an equilibrium position side by the variables. That means that for each variable,
side. Based on your answer from part b, is this you should determine what its effect on a should
correct? √
be physically, and then what your answer from
(d) Find the tension in the rope, T . part a says its effect would be mathematically.
(e) Interpret your equation from part d in the
special case where one of the masses is zero.
Here “interpret” means to figure out what
happens mathematically, figure out what should
happen physically, and connect the two.

Problem 5-p3.

5-p4 Consider the system shown in the figure.

Block A has mass MA and block B has mass MB .
There is friction between the table and block A.
Problem 5-p2. Once block B is set into downward motion, it de-
scends at a constant speed.
(a) Analyze the forces in which each block par-
5-p3 Mountain climbers with masses m and ticipates as described in section 5.5
M are roped together while crossing a horizon- (b) Calculate the coefficient of kinetic friction√
tal glacier when a vertical crevasse opens up un- between block A and the tabletop.
der the climber with mass M . The climber with (c) A sloth, also of mass MA , falls asleep on top
mass m drops down on the snow and tries to stop of block A. If block B is now set into downward
by digging into the snow with the pick of an ice motion, what is its acceleration (magnitude and
ax. Alas, this story does not have a happy end- direction)? √
ing, because this doesn’t provide enough friction
PROBLEMS 65

Problem 5-p4.
Problem 5-p5.

5-p5 Ginny has a plan. She is going to ride

her sled while her dog Foo pulls her, and she √
the relevant coefficient of friction.
holds on to his leash. However, Ginny hasn’t (b) Show that your answer makes sense in terms
taken physics, so there may be a problem: she of units.
may slide right off the sled when Foo starts (c) Check that your result has the correct behav-
pulling. ior when you make m bigger or smaller. Explain.
(a) Analyze all the forces in which Ginny partic- This means that you should discuss the mathe-
ipates, making a table as in section 5.5. matical behavior of the result, and then explain
(b) Analyze all the forces in which the sled par- how this corresponds to what would really hap-
ticipates. pen physically.
(c) The sled has mass m, and Ginny has mass (d) Similarly, discuss what happens when you
M . The coefficient of static friction between the make M bigger or smaller.
sled and the snow is µ1 , and µ2 is the corre- (e) Similarly, discuss what happens when you
sponding quantity for static friction between the make g bigger or smaller.
sled and her snow pants. Ginny must have a cer- ?
tain minimum mass so that she will not slip off
the sled. Find this in terms of the other three √
variables.
(d) Interpreting your equation from part c, under
what conditions will there be no physically real-
istic solution for M ? Discuss what this means
physically.

5-p6 The figure shows a stack of two blocks,

sitting on top of a table that is bolted to the
floor. All three objects are made from identi- Problem 5-p6.
cal wood, with their surfaces finished identically
using the same sandpaper. We tap the middle
block, giving it an initial velocity v to the right. 5-p7 (a) A block is sitting on a wedge in-
The tap is executed so rapidly that almost no clined at an angle θ with respect to horizontal.
initial velocity is imparted to the top block. Someone grabs the wedge and moves it horizon-
(a) Find the time that will elapse until the slip- tally with acceleration a. The motion is in the
ping between the top and middle blocks stops. direction shown by the arrow in the figure. Find
Express your answer in terms of v, m, M , g, and the maximum acceleration that can be applied
66 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2

√
without causing the block to slide downhill. sense.
(b) Show that your answer to part a has the right (c) Check the physical behavior of your answer
units. in the special cases of M = 0 and θ = −90◦ .
(c) Show that it also has the right dependence on
θ, by comparing its mathematical behavior to its
physically expected behavior.
?

Problems 5-p9 and 5-p10.

Problem 5-p7. 5-p10 The physical situation is the same as in

problem 5-p9, except that we make different as-
sumptions about friction. (a) Suppose that there
5-p8 The two blocks shown in the figure have is no friction between the block and the ramp.
equal mass, m, and the surface is frictionless. (a) Find the value of m/M so that the system is in √
√
What is the tension in the massless rope? equilibrium.
(b) Show that the units of your answer make (b) If there is instead a coefficient of static fric-
sense. tion µs between the block and the ramp, find
(c) Check the physical behavior of your answer the minimum and maximum values that m/M
in the special cases of φ ≤ θ and θ = 0, φ = 90◦ . can have so that the blocks remain at rest. √
?
5-p11 The figure shows a block acted on by
two external forces, each of magnitude F . One
of the forces is horizontal, but the other is ap-
plied at a downward angle θ. Gravity is negligi-
ble compared to these forces. The block rests on
a surface with friction described by a coefficient
of friction µs . (a) Find the minimum value of
µs that is required if the block is to remain at√
rest.
(b) Show that this expression has the correct
limit as θ approaches zero.

Problem 5-p8.

5-p9 (a) The person with mass m hangs from

the rope, hauling the box of mass M up a slope Problem 5-p11.
inclined at an angle θ. There is friction between
the box and the slope, described by the usual
coefficients of friction. The pulley, however, is 5-s1 A person can pull with a maximum force
frictionless. Find the magnitude of the box’s √
F . What is the maximum mass that the person
acceleration. can lift with the pulley setup shown in the figure?
√
(b) Show that the units of your answer make
PROBLEMS 67

Problem 5-s1.

5-s2 In the system shown in the figure, the

pulleys on the left and right are fixed, but the
pulley in the center can move to the left or right. Problem 5-s3.
The two masses are identical. Find the upward
acceleration of the mass on the left, in terms of
g only. Assume all the ropes and pulleys are
massless and frictionless.

Problem 5-s2.

5-s3 The two masses are identical. Find the

upward acceleration of the mass on the right,
in terms of g only. Assume all the ropes and
pulleys, as well as the cross-bar, are massless,
and the pulleys are frictionless. The right-hand
mass has been positioned away from the bar’s Problem 5-s4.
center, so that the bar will not twist.

5-s4 Find the upward acceleration of mass

m1 in the figure. √
68 CHAPTER 5. NEWTON’S LAWS, PART 2
6 Circular motion
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems define the angular velocity ω, which is the num-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although ber of radians per second by which the object’s
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- angle changes, ω = dθ/ dt. For uniform circular
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is motion, ω is constant, and the magnitude of the
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to acceleration is
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- v2
pose of the summary is to show what material is a = ω2 r = , (6.1)
r
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used. where r is the radius of the circle (see problem 6-
d1, p. 72). These expressions can also be related
to the period of the rotation T , which is the time
6.1 Uniform circular motion for one revolution. We have ω = 2π/T .

Figure 6.1 shows an overhead view of a person

swinging a rock on a rope. A force from the 6.2 Rotating frames
string is required to make the rock’s velocity vec-
tor keep changing direction. If the string breaks, When you’re in the back seat of a car going
the rock will follow Newton’s first law and go around a curve, not looking out the window,
straight instead of continuing around the circle. there is a strong tendency to adopt a frame of
Circular motion requires a force with a compo- reference in which the car is at rest. This is a
nent toward the center of the circle. noninertial frame of reference, because the car is
accelerating. In a noninertial frame, Newton’s
laws are violated. For example, the air freshener
hanging from the mirror in figure 3.6 on p. 33 will
swing as the car enters the curve, but this motion
is not caused by a force made by any identifiable
object. In the inertial frame of someone standing
by the side of the road, the air freshener simply
continued straight while the car accelerated.

6.3 Nonuniform motion

In nonuniform circular motion, we have not just
the acceleration ar = ω 2 r in the radial direction
(toward the center of the circle) but also a com-
Figure 6.1: Overhead view of a person swinging ponent at = dv/ dt in the tangential direction.
a rock on a rope.
6.4 Rotational kinematics
Uniform circular motion is the special case in
which the speed is constant. In uniform circular
Angular velocity and acceleration
motion, the acceleration vector is toward the cen-
ter, and therefore total force acting on the object If a rigid body such as a top rotates about a
must point directly toward the center. We can fixed axis, then every particle in that body per-

69
70 CHAPTER 6. CIRCULAR MOTION

Figure 6.2: Different atoms in the top have dif-

ferent velocity vectors, 1, but sweep out the same
angle in a given time, 2.
Figure 6.3: Analogies between rotational and lin-
ear quantities.
forms circular motion about a point on that axis.
Every atom has a different velocity vector, figure
object. The velocity vector has tangential and
6.2. Since all the velocities are different, we can’t
radial components
measure the top’s speed of rotation of the top by
giving a single velocity. But every particle covers vt = ωr
the same angle in the same amount of time, so
we can specify the speed of rotation consistently and
in terms of angle per unit time. Let the position vr = 0.
of some reference point on the top be denoted by
its angle θ, measured in a circle around the axis. For the acceleration vector,
We measure all our angles in radians. We define
at = αr
the angular velocity as
and
dθ
ω= . ar = ω 2 r.
dt
The relationship between ω and t is exactly anal-
ogous to that between x and t for the motion of a
particle through space. The angular velocity has
units of radians per second, s−1 . We also define
an angular acceleration,

dω
α= .
dt

with units s−2 .

The mathematical relationship between ω and
θ is the same as the one between v and x, and
similarly for α and a. We can thus make a
system of analogies, and recycle all the famil-
iar kinematic equations for constant-acceleration
motion.

Angular and linear quantities related

We often want to relate the angular quantities to
the motion of a particular point on the rotating
PROBLEMS 71

Problems observer not moving relative to the center of the √

Earth)?
6-a1 Show that the expression |v|2 /r has the (b) What is Debbie’s acceleration? Your answer
units of acceleration. indicates to what extent the apparent accelera-
tion due to gravity is modified when not at one
2
6-a2 A plane is flown in a loop-the-loop of ra- of the poles. For reference, g = 9.81 m/s at the
dius 1.00 km. The plane starts out flying upside- poles, but appears slightly less near the equator.
√
down, straight and level, then begins curving up
along the circular loop, and is right-side up when 6-a6 Some kids are playing around on a
it reaches the top. (The plane may slow down merry-go-round at the park. You notice that lit-
somewhat on the way up.) How fast must the tle Timmy can’t seem to hold on to the edge of
plane be going at the top if the pilot is to ex- the merry-go-round (of radius 1.5 m) when the
perience no force from the seat or the seatbelt period of the merry-go-round (the time for one
while at the top of the loop? full revolution) is less than 2.0 s.
√
(a) What is the maximum acceleration that √
6-a3 The bright star Sirius has a mass of Timmy can handle?
4.02×1030 kg and lies at a distance of 8.1×1016 m (b) If Timmy were on a merry-go-round of ra-
from our solar system. Suppose you’re standing dius 6.0 m, what wold be the minimum period
on a merry-go-round carousel rotating with a pe- of revolution that would allow him to stay on? √
riod of 10 seconds, and Sirius is on the horizon.
You adopt a rotating, noninertial frame of ref- 6-a7 A particle is undergoing uniform circular
erence, in which the carousel is at rest, and the motion in the xy-plane such that its distance to
universe is spinning around it. If you drop a the origin does not change. At one instant, the
corndog, you see it accelerate horizontally away particle is moving with velocity v = (10.0 m/s)x̂
from the axis, and you interpret this as the result and with acceleration a = (2.0 m/s2 )ŷ. √
of some horizontal force. This force does not ac- (a) What is the radius of the circle?
tually exist; it only seems to exist because you’re (b) How long does it take for the particle to travel
insisting on using a noninertial frame. Similarly, once around the circle (i.e., what is the period of√
calculate the force that seems to act on Sirius in motion)?
this frame of reference. Comment on the physi- (c) In what direction will the particle be moving
cal plausibility of this force, and on what object after a quarter of a period? Give your answer
could be exerting it. √
as an angle θ (0 ≤ θ < 360◦ ) that the velocity
vector makes with respect to the +x̂ direction,
6-a4 Lionel brand toy trains come with sec- measured counterclockwise from the +x̂ direc-
tions of track in standard lengths and shapes. tion. √
For circular arcs, the most commonly used sec-
tions have diameters of 662 and 1067 mm at the 6-a8 A car is approaching the top of a hill of
inside of the outer rail. The maximum speed at radius of curvature R.
which a train can take the broader curve without (a) If the normal force that the driver feels at
flying off the tracks is 0.95 m/s. At what speed the top of the hill is 1/3 of their weight, how
√
must the train be operated to avoid derailing on fast is the car going?
the tighter curve? √ (b) Check that the units of your answer to part
a make sense.
6-a5 Debbie is in Los Angeles, at a distance (c) Check that the dependence of your answer
r = 5280 km from the Earth’s axis of rotation. on the variables makes sense.
(a) What is Debbie’s speed (as measured by an
72 CHAPTER 6. CIRCULAR MOTION

without sliding to the floor. Based on your equa-

6-a9 An airplane is in a nosedive. In order not tion from part a, how many times greater must
to crash, the pilot pulls up as much as she can. the speed be before Gina can lift her feet without
At the lowest point of the plane’s trajectory, the sliding down?
plane is in a circular arc of radius 300 m, and the
pilot experiences an acceleration of 5.0g (so that
her weight feels like six times normal). What is
the plane’s speed at this point? √

6-d1 In this problem, you’ll derive the equa-

tion |a| = |v|2 /r using calculus. Instead of
comparing velocities at two points in the par-
Problem 6-g1.
ticle’s motion and then taking a limit where
the points are close together, you’ll just take
derivatives. The particle’s position vector is
6-g2 Tommy the playground bully is whirling
r = (r cos θ)x̂ + (r sin θ)ŷ, where x̂ and ŷ are
a brick tied to the end of a rope. The rope
the unit vectors along the x and y axes. By the
makes an angle θ with respect to the horizontal,
definition of radians, the distance traveled since
and the brick undergoes circular motion with
t = 0 is rθ, so if the particle is traveling at con-
radius R.
stant speed v = |v|, we have v = rθ/t. √
(a) What is the speed of the brick?
(a) Eliminate θ to get the particle’s position vec-
(b) Check that the units of your answer to part
tor as a function of time.
a make sense.
(b) Find the particle’s acceleration vector.
(c) Check that the dependence of your answer
(c) Show that the magnitude of the acceleration
on the variables makes sense, and comment on
vector equals v 2 /r.
the limit θ → 0.

6-g1 The amusement park ride shown in the

figure consists of a cylindrical room that rotates
about its vertical axis. When the rotation is fast
enough, a person against the wall can pick his or
her feet up off the floor and remain “stuck” to
the wall without falling.
(a) Suppose the rotation results in the person
having a speed v. The radius of the cylinder is
r, the person’s mass is m, the downward acceler- Problem 6-g2.
ation of gravity is g, and the coefficient of static
friction between the person and the wall is µs .
Find an equation for the speed, v, required, in 6-g3 The figure shows a ball on the end of
terms of the other variables. (You will find that a string of length L attached to a vertical rod
one of the variables cancels out.) which is spun about its vertical axis by a motor.
(b) Now suppose two people are riding the ride. The period (time for one rotation) is P .
Huy is wearing denim, and Gina is wearing (a) Analyze the forces in which the ball partici-
polyester, so Huy’s coefficient of static friction pates.
is three times greater. The ride starts from rest, (b) Find how the angle θ depends on P, g, and
and as it begins rotating faster and faster, Gina L. [Hints: (1) Write down Newton’s second law
must wait longer before being able to lift her feet for the vertical and horizontal components of
PROBLEMS 73

√
force and acceleration. This gives two equations, what is the maximum radius of the circle?
which can be solved for the two unknowns, θ and (b) Show that the units of your answer make
the tension in the string. (2) If you introduce sense.
variables like v and r, relate them to the vari- (c) Check that its dependence on the variables
ables your solution is supposed to contain, and√
makes sense.
eliminate them.] (d) Evaluate your result numerically for
(c) What happens mathematically to your solu- v = 10 m/s (the speed of an olympic sprinter)
tion if the motor is run very slowly (very large and µs = 5. (This is roughly the highest
values of P )? Physically, what do you think coefficient of static friction ever achieved for
would actually happen in this case? surfaces that are not sticky. The surface has an
array of microscopic fibers like a hair brush, and
is inspired by the hairs on the feet of a gecko.
These assumptions are not necessarily realistic,
since the person would have to run at an angle, √
which would be physically awkward.)

Problem 6-g3.

6-g4 The figure shows two blocks of masses

m1 and m2 sliding in circles on a frictionless ta-
ble. Find the tension in the strings if the period
of rotation (time required for one rotation) is
√
P.
Problem 6-g5.

6-g6 A child places a toy on the outer rim of

a merry-go-round that has radius R and period
T . What is the lowest value of the coefficient of
Problem 6-g4. static friction between the toy and the merry-go-
round that allows the toy to stay on the carousel?
√

6-g5 In a well known stunt from circuses 6-g7 The 1961-66 US Gemini program
and carnivals, a motorcyclist rides around inside launched pairs of astronauts into earth orbit
a big bowl, gradually speeding up and rising in tiny capsules, on missions lasting up to 14
higher. Eventually the cyclist can get up to days. The figure shows the two seats, in a cross-
where the walls of the bowl are vertical. Let’s sectional view from the front, as if looking into a
estimate the conditions under which a running car through the windshield. During the Gemini
human could do the same thing. 8 mission, a malfunctioning thruster in the Or-
(a) If the runner can run at speed v, and her bit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS)
shoes have a coefficient of static friction µs , caused the capsule to roll, i.e., to rotate in the
74 CHAPTER 6. CIRCULAR MOTION

plane of the page. The rate of rotation got off when the motor is on a low speed, but at
faster and faster, reaching 296 degrees per sec- a greater speed, the tape won’t stay on. Why
ond before pilot Neil Armstrong shut down the would the greater speed change things? [Hint: If
OAMS system by hand and succeeded in cancel- you don’t invoke any law of physics, you haven’t
ing the rotation using a separate set of re-entry explained it.]
thrusters. At the peak rate of rotation, the as- ?
tronauts were approaching the physiological lim-
its under which their hearts would no longer be
able to circulate blood, potentially causing them
to black out or go blind. Superimposing the ap-
proximate location of a human heart on the orig-
inal NASA diagram, it looks like Armstrong’s
heart was about 45 cm away from the axis of ro-
tation. Find the acceleration experienced by his
heart, in units of g. √

Problem 6-j1.

6-j2 The acceleration of an object in uni-

form circular motion can be given either by
|a| = |v|2 /r or, equivalently, by |a| = 4π 2 r/T 2 ,
where T is the time required for one cycle. Per-
son A says based on the first equation that the
acceleration in circular motion is greater when
the circle is smaller. Person B, arguing from
the second equation, says that the acceleration
is smaller when the circle is smaller. Rewrite the
two statements so that they are less misleading,
eliminating the supposed paradox. [Based on a
Problem 6-g7. problem by Arnold Arons.]
?
6-j3 Psychology professor R.O. Dent requests
6-j1 When you’re done using an electric funding for an experiment on compulsive thrill-
mixer, you can get most of the batter off of the seeking behavior in guinea pigs, in which the
beaters by lifting them out of the batter with subject is to be attached to the end of a spring
the motor running at a high enough speed. Let’s and whirled around in a horizontal circle. The
imagine, to make things easier to visualize, that spring has relaxed length b, and obeys Hooke’s
we instead have a piece of tape stuck to one of law with spring constant k. It is stiff enough to
the beaters. keep from bending significantly under the guinea
(a) Explain why static friction has no effect on pig’s weight.
whether or not the tape flies off. (a) Calculate the length of the spring when it is
(b) Analyze the forces in which the tape par- undergoing steady circular motion in which one
ticipates, using a table in the format shown in rotation takes a time T . Express your result in√
section 5.5. terms of k, b, T , and the guinea pig’s mass m.
(c) Suppose you find that the tape doesn’t fly (b) The ethics committee somehow fails to veto
PROBLEMS 75

the experiment, but the safety committee ex-

presses concern. Why? Does your equation do
anything unusual, or even spectacular, for any
particular value of T ? What do you think is the
physical significance of this mathematical behav-
ior?
?

Problem 6-j3.

6-j4 The figure shows an old-fashioned device

Problem 6-j4.
called a flyball governor, used for keeping an en-
gine running at the correct speed. The whole
thing rotates about the vertical shaft, and the
mass M is free to slide up and down. This mass 20.0 m/s and decelerating at a rate of 3.0 m/s2 .
would have a connection (not shown) to a valve The car is turning to the right.
that controlled the engine. If, for instance, the(b) What is the absolute value of the radial com-
engine ran too fast, the mass would rise, causingponent of the acceleration? What is the magni- √
the engine to slow back down. tude of the acceleration vector?
(a) Show that in the special case of a = 0, the (c) There is a pine-scented tree hanging from the
angle θ is given by rear view mirror. During the curve, the tree does
not hang vertically. Describe in words which way
g(m + M )P 2

θ = cos−1 , the tree swings. Does it appear to lean left, or
4π 2 mL right? Forward, or backward? An analysis of the
forces might help in your explanation.
where P is the period of rotation (time required (d) What angle does the tree make with respect
for one complete rotation). to the vertical?
(b) There is no closed-form solution for θ in √
?
the general case where a is not zero. However,
explain how the undesirable low-speed behavior 6-j6 The vertical post rotates at frequency ω.
of the a = 0 device would be improved by The bead slides freely along the string, reaching
making a nonzero. an equilibrium in which its distance from the axis
is r and the angles θ and φ have some particular
? values. Find φ in terms of θ, g, ω, and r. √
6-j5 A car exits the freeway via a circular ?
off-ramp. The road is level (i.e., the curve is not 6-j7 A bead slides down along a piece of wire
banked at all), and the radius of curvature of the that is in the shape of a helix. The helix lies on
circular ramp is 1.00 × 102 m. The coefficient of the surface of a vertical cylinder of radius r, and
friction between the tires and the road is µ = 0.8. the vertical distance between turns is d.
(a) What is the maximum possible speed the car √
(a) Ordinarily when an object slides downhill un-
can travel on the offramp without slipping? der the influence of kinetic friction, the velocity-
For parts (b) through (d), the car is traveling at independence of kinetic friction implies that the
76 CHAPTER 6. CIRCULAR MOTION

many revolutions does the disk make before it

comes to rest? √

6-m2 A bell rings at the Tilden Park merry go

round in Berkeley, California, and the carousel
begins to move with an angular acceleration of
1.0 × 10−2 s−2 . How much time does it take to
perform its first revolution? √

6-m3 Neutron stars are the collapsed rem-

nants of dead stars. They rotate quickly, and
their rotation can be measured extremely accu-
rately by radio astronomers. Some of them ro-
tate at such a predictable rate that they can be
used to count time about as accurately as the
best atomic clocks. They do decelerate slowly,
Problem 6-j6. but this deceleration can be taken into account.
One of the best-studied stars of this type1 was
observed continuously over a 10-year period. As
acceleration is constant, and therefore there is no of the benchmark date April 5, 2001, it was found
limit to the object’s velocity. Explain the physi- to have
cal reason why this argument fails here, so that
ω = 1.091313551502333 × 103 s−1
the bead will in fact have some limiting velocity.
(b) Find the limiting velocity.
and
(c) Show that your result has the correct behav-
ior in the limit of r → ∞. [Problem by B. Kor-
sunsky.] α = −1.085991 × 10−14 s−2 ,
√
??
where the error bars in the final digit of each
number are about ±1. Astronomers often use
the Julian year as their unit of time, where one
Julian year is defined to be exactly 3.15576 ×
107 s. Find the number of revolutions that this
pulsar made over a period of 10 Julian years,
starting from the benchmark date. √

6-m4 A gasoline-powered car has a heavy

wheel called a flywheel, whose main function is
to add inertia to the motion of the engine so
that it keeps spinning smoothly between power
strokes of the cylinders. Suppose that a certain
Problem 6-j7.
car’s flywheel is spinning with angular velocity
ω0 , but the car is then turned off, so that the en-
gine and flywheel start to slow down as a result
6-m1 A disk, initially rotating at 120 radi-
of friction. Assume that the angular acceleration
ans per second, is slowed down with a constant
angular acceleration of magnitude 4.0 s−2 . How 1 Verbiest et al., Astrophysical Journal 679 (675) 2008
PROBLEMS 77

is constant. After the flywheel has made N revo- 6-p3 A bug stands on a horizontal turntable
lutions, it comes to rest. What is the magnitude at distance r from the center. The coefficient of
of the angular acceleration? √
static friction between the bug and the turntable
is µs . Starting from rest, the turntable begins
6-m5 A rigid body rotates about a line ac- rotating with angular acceleration α. What is
cording to θ = At3 − Bt (valid for both negative the magnitude of the angular frequency at which
and positive t). the bug starts to slide? √
(a) What is the angular velocity as a function of
√
time? 6-p4 A 20.0 g cockroach is lounging at a dis-
(b) What is the angular acceleration as a func- tance r = 5.00 cm from the axis of the carousel
√
tion of time? of a microwave oven. Except for the species,
(c) There are two times when the angular veloc- the situation is similar to the one shown in the
ity is zero. What is the positive time for which figure. The cockroach’s angular coordinate is
√
this is true? Call this t+ . θ(t) = 12t2 − 4.0t3 , where t is in seconds and
(d) What is the average angular velocity over the θ is in radians.
time interval from 0 to t+ ? (a) Find the angular velocity and acceleration.√
√

6-m6 The angular acceleration of a wheel is (b) At what time t2 > 0 is the cockroach at rest?
α = 12t−24t3 , where α is in s−2 and t is the time At what time t1 , where 0 < t1 < t2 , is the cock-
√
in seconds. The wheel starts from rest at t = 0. roach moving the fastest?
How many revolutions has it turned between t = (c) Find the tangential and radial components
0 and when it is again at rest? of the linear acceleration of the cockroach at t1 .
√ What is the direction of the acceleration vector√
at this time?
6-p1 (a) Find the angular velocities of the (d) How many revolutions does the cockroach
earth’s rotation and of the earth’s motion around √
√ make from t = 0 to t = t2 ?
the sun. (e) Suppose that the carousel, instead of deceler-
(b) Which motion involves the greater accelera- ating, had kept spinning at constant speed after
tion? t1 . Find the period and the frequency (in revo-
lutions per minute). √
6-p2 A bug stands on a horizontal turntable
at distance r from the center. The coefficient of 6-p5 A CD is initially moving counterclock-
static friction between the bug and the turntable wise with angular speed ω0 and then starts de-
is µs . The turntable spins at constant angular celerating with an angular acceleration of mag-
frequency ω. nitude α.
(a) Is the bug more likely to slip at small values (a) How long does it take for the CD to come to
√
of r, or large values? rest?
(b) If the bug walks along a radius, what is the (b) Suppose that, after a time equal to half
value of r at which it looses its footing? √ that found in part a, point on the CD satisfies
|ar | = |at |. If the initial angular velocity of the
CD was 40 s−1 , what is the total time it takes
for the CD to come to rest (i.e., the numerical
value of your answer in part a)? √
Problems 6-p2, 6-p3, and 6-p4.
6-s1 The figure shows a microscopic view of
the innermost tracks of a music CD. The pits
78 CHAPTER 6. CIRCULAR MOTION

represent the pattern of ones and zeroes that en- 6-s2 Find the motion of a bead that slides
code the musical waveform. Because the laser with coefficient of kinetic friction µ on a circular
that reads the data has to sweep over a fixed wire of radius r. Neglect gravity. [This requires a
amount of data per unit time, the disc spins at a couple of standard techniques for solving a differ-
decreasing angular velocity as the music is played ential equation, but not obscure or tricky ones.]
from the inside out. The linear velocity v, not ?
the angular velocity, is constant. Each track is
separated from its neighbors on either side by
a fixed distance p, called the pitch. Although
the tracks are actually concentric circles, we will
idealize them in this problem as a type of spiral,
called an Archimedean spiral, whose turns have
constant spacing, p, along any radial line. Our
goal is to find the angular acceleration of this
idealized CD, in terms of the constants v and p,
and the radius r at which the laser is positioned.
(a) Use geometrical reasoning to constrain the
dependence of the result on p.
(b) Use units to further constrain the result up
to a unitless multiplicative constant.
(c) Find the full result. [Hint: Find a differ-
ential equation involving r and its time deriva-
tive, and then solve this equation by separating √
variables.]
(d) Consider the signs of the variables in your
answer to part c, and show that your equation
still makes sense when the direction of rotation
is reversed.
(e) Similarly, check that your result makes sense Problem 6-s2.
regardless of whether we view the CD player
from the front or the back. (Clockwise seen from
one side is counterclockwise from the other.)
?

Problem 6-s1.
7 Conservation of energy
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems metries of the laws of physics themselves. One
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although such symmetry is that laws of physics do not
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- seem to change over time. That is, they have
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is time-translation symmetry. The gravitational
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to forces that you see near the surface of the earth
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- are determined by Newton’s law of gravity, which
pose of the summary is to show what material is we will state later in quantitative detail.
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
Suppose that Newton’s law of gravity did
what terminology and notation are being used.
change over time. (Such a change would have
to be small, because precise experiments haven’t
7.1 Conservation laws shown objects to get heavier or lighter from one
time to another.) If you knew of such a change,
Newton presented his laws of motion as universal then you could exploit it to make money. On a
ones that would apply to all phenomena. We now day when gravity was weak, you could pay the
know that this is not true. For example, a ray electric company what it cost you to run an elec-
of light has zero mass, so a = F/m gives non- tric motor, and lift a giant weight to the top of
sense when applied to light. Today, physicists a tower. Then, on a high-gravity day, you could
formulate the most fundamental laws of physics lower the weight back down and use it to crank
as conservation laws, which arise from symmetry a generator, selling electric power back on the
principles. open market. You would have a kind of perpet-
An object has a symmetry if it remains un- ual motion machine.
changed under some sort of transformation such What you are buying from the electric com-
as a reflection, rotation, rotation, or translation pany is a thing called energy, a term that has a
in time or space. A sphere is symmetric under ro- specific technical meaning in physics. The fact
tation. An object that doesn’t change over time that the law of gravity does does not seem to
has symmetry with respect to time-translation. change over time tells us that we can’t use a
scheme like the one described above as a way
to create energy out of nothing. In fact, experi-
ments seem to show that no physical process can
create or destroy energy, they can only transfer
or transform it from one form into another. In
other words, the total amount of energy in the
universe can never change. A statement of this
form is called a conservation law. Today, New-
ton’s laws have been replaced by a set of conser-
vation laws, including conservation of energy.
Figure 7.1: In this scene from Swan Lake, the Writing conservation of energy symbolically,
choreography has a symmetry with respect to we have E1 + E2 + . . . = E10 + E20 + . . ., where
left and right. the sum is over all the types of energy that are
present, and the primed and unprimed letters
The fundamentally important symmetries in distinguish the energies at some initial and final
physics are not symmetries of objects but sym- times. For more compact writing, we can use the

79
80 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Figure 7.2: Work.

notation X X aliens someday, they will presumably not agree

Ek = Ek0 , (7.1) with us on how many units of energy there are
k k in a liter of gasoline. We could, however, pick
where Σ, Greek uppercase sigma, stands for something arbitrary like a liter of gas as a stan-
“sum,” and k is an index taking on the values dard of comparison.
1, 2, . . . . Figure ?? shows a train of thought leading to
Another conservation law is conservation of a standard that turns out to be more convenient.
mass. Experiments by Lavoisier (1743-1794) In panel 1, the tractor raises the weight over
showed that, for example, when wood was the pulley. Gravitational energy is stored in the
burned, the total mass of the smoke, hot gases, weight, and this energy could be released later by
and charred wood was the same as the mass of dropping or lowering the weight. In 2, the trac-
the original wood. This view was modified in tor accelerates the trailer, increasing its kinetic
1905 by Einstein’s famous E = mc2 , which says energy. In 3, the tractor pulls a plow. Energy
that we can actually convert energy to mass and is expended in frictional heating of the plow and
mass to energy. Therefore the separate laws of the dirt, and in breaking dirt clods and lifting
conservation of energy and mass are only ap- dirt up to the sides of the furrow. In all three
proximations to a deeper, underlying conserva- examples, the energy of the gas in the tractor’s
tion law that includes both quantities. tank is converted into some other form, and in all
three examples there is a force F involved, and
the tractor travels some distance d as it applies
7.2 Work the force.
Energy exists in various forms, such a the energy Now imagine a black box, panel 4, containing
of sunlight, gravitational energy, and the energy a gasoline-powered engine, which is designed to
of a moving object, called kinetic energy. Be- reel in a steel cable, exerting a force F . The
cause it exists in so many forms, it is a tricky box only communicates with the outside world
concept to define. By analogy, an amount of via the hole through which its cable passes, and
money can be expressed in terms of dollars, eu- therefore the amount of energy transferred out
ros, or various other currencies, but modern gov- through the cable can only depend on F and d.
ernments no longer even attempt to define the Since force and energy are both additive, this en-
value of their currencies in absolute terms such ergy must be proportional to F , and since the en-
as ounces of gold. If we make radio contact with ergy transfer is additive as we reel in one section
7.3. KINETIC ENERGY 81

of cable and then a further section, the energy The units of power can be abbreviated as watts,
must also be proportional to d. As an arbitrary 1 W =R 1 J/s. For the conditions under which
standard, we pick the constant of proportionality W = F dx is valid, we can use the funda-
to be 1, so that the energy transferred, notated mental theorem of calculus to find F = dW/ dx,
W for work, is given by and since dW/ dt = (dK/ dx)(dx/ dt), the power
transmitted by the force is
W = F d. (7.2)
P = F v. (7.7)
This equation implicitly defines the SI unit of
energy to be kg · m2 /s2 , and we abbreviate this
as one joule, 1 J = 1 kg·m2 /s2 . 7.3 Kinetic energy
In general, we define work as the transfer of
energy by a macroscopic force, with a plus sign Having chosen mechanical work as an arbitrary
if energy is flowing from the object exerting the standard for defining transfers of energy, we are
force to the object on which the force is exerted. led by Newton’s laws to an expression for the
(In examples such as heat conduction, the forces energy that an object has because of its mo-
are forces that occur in the collisions between tion, called kinetic energy, K. One form of this
atoms, which are not measurable by macroscopic work-kinetic energy theorem is as follows. Let
devices such as spring scales and force probes.) a force act on a particle of mass m in one di-
Equation (7.2) is a correct rule for computing mension. By the chain rule, we have dK/ dx =
work in the special case when the force is ex- (dK/ dv)(dv/ dt)(dt/ dx) = (dK/ dv)a/v. Ap-
erted at a single well-defined point of contact, plying a = F/m and dK/ dx = F (work) gives
that point moves along a line, the force and the dK/ dv = mv. Integration of both sides with
motion are parallel, and the force is constant. respect to v results in
The distance d is a signed quantity.
1
When the force and the motion are not paral- K= mv 2 , (7.8)
lel, we have the generalization 2
where the constant of integration can be taken to
W = F · ∆x, (7.3) be zero. The factor of 1/2 is ultimately a matter
of convention; if we had wanted to avoid the 1/2
in which · is the vector dot product. When force
in this equation, we could have, but we would
and motion are along the same line, but the force
have had to define work as 2F d.
is not constant,
When we heat an object, we are increasing
Z the kinetic energy of the random motion of its
W = F dx. (7.4) molecules. The amount of energy required to
heat one kilogram a substance by one degree is
Applying both of these generalizations at once called its specific heat capacity. A useful figure is
gives Z that the specific heat of water is 4.2×103 J/kg·◦ C.
W = F · dx, (7.5)

which is an example of the line integral from vec-

7.4 Potential energy
tor calculus. Figure 7.3 shows someone lifting a heavy text-
The rate at which energy is transferred or book at constant speed while a bug hitches a
transformed is the power, ride on top. The person’s body has burned some
dE calories, and although some of that energy went
P = . (7.6) into body heat, an amount equal to F d must
dt
82 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Since the work done by the hand equals F d, it

follows that the potential energy must be given
by
P Egrav = mgy, (7.9)
where an arbitary additive constant is implied
because we have to choose a reference level at
which to define y = 0. In the more general case
where the external force such as gravity is not
constant and can point in any direction, we have
Z 2
∆P E = − F · dx, (7.10)
1

where 1 and 2 stand for the inital and final po-

sitions. This is a line integral, which is general
may depend on the path the object takes. But
for a certain class of forces, which includes, to
a good approximation, the earth’s gravitational
Figure 7.3: The book gains potential energy as
force on an object, the result is not dependent
it is raised.
on the path, and therefore the potential energy
is well defined.
have flowed into the book. But the bug may be A common example is an elastic restoring force
excused for being skeptical about this. No mea- F = −kx (Hooke’s law), such Ras the force of a
surement that the bug can do within its own im- spring. Calculating ∆P E = − F dx, we find
mediate environment shows any changes in the
1
properties of the book: there is no change in tem- P E = kx2 , (7.11)
2
perature, no vibration, nothing. Even if the bug
looks at the walls of the room and is able to tell where the constant of integration is arbitrarily
that it is rising, it finds that it is rising at con- chosen to be zero. This is in fact a type of elec-
stant speed, so there is no change in the book’s trical potential energy, which varies as the lattice
kinetic energy. But if the person then takes her of atoms within the spring is distorted.
hand away and lets the book drop, the bug will
have to admit that there is a spectacular and
scary release of kinetic energy, which will later
be transformed into sound and vibration when
the book hits the floor.
If we are to salvage the law of conservation of
energy, we are forced to invent a new type of en-
ergy, which depends on the height of the book in
the earth’s gravitational field. This is an energy
of position, which is usually notated as P E or U .
Any time two objects interact through a force
exerted at a distance (gravity, magnetism, etc.),
there is a corresponding position-energy, which
is referred to as potential energy. The hand was
giving gravitational potential energy to the book.
PROBLEMS 83

Problems cylinders performs 2400 power strokes. (Power

strokes only happen every other revolution.)
7-a1 “Big wall” climbing is a specialized type Find the engine’s power, in units of horsepower √
of rock climbing that involves going up tall cliffs (1 hp=746 W).
such as the ones in Yosemite, usually with the (d) The compression ratio of an engine is defined
climbers spending at least one night sleeping on as x2 /x1 . Explain in words why the car’s power
a natural ledge or an artificial “portaledge.” In would be exactly the same if x1 and x2 were, say,
this style of climbing, each pitch of the climb in- halved or tripled, maintaining the same compres-
volves strenuously hauling up several heavy bags sion ratio of 8.5. Explain why this would not
of gear — a fact that has caused these climbs to quite be true with the more realistic force equa-
be referred to as “vertical ditch digging.” (a) If tion F = a/x1.4 .
an 80 kg haul bag has to be pulled up the full
length of a 60 m rope, how much work is done?
(b) Since it can be difficult to lift 80 kg, a 2:1
pulley is often used. The hauler then lifts the
equivalent of 40 kg, but has to pull in 120 m of
rope. How much work is done in this case? √

7-a2 An airplane flies in the positive direction

along the x axis, through crosswinds that exert
a force F = (a + bx)x̂ + (c + dx)ŷ. Find the
work done by the wind on the plane, and by the
plane on the wind, in traveling from the origin
to position x. √

7-a3 In the power stroke of a car’s gasoline en-

gine, the fuel-air mixture is ignited by the spark
plug, explodes, and pushes the piston out. The
exploding mixture’s force on the piston head is
greatest at the beginning of the explosion, and Problem 7-a3.
decreases as the mixture expands. It can be
approximated by F = a/x, where x is the dis-
tance from the cylinder to the piston head, and 7-a4 (a) The crew of an 18th century warship
a is a constant with units of N · m. (Actually is raising the anchor. The anchor has a mass of
a/x1.4 would be more accurate, but the problem 5000 kg. The water is 30 m deep. The chain
works out more nicely with a/x!) The piston be- to which the anchor is attached has a mass per
gins its stroke at x = x1 , and ends at x = x2 . unit length of 150 kg/m. Before they start rais-
The 1965 Rambler had six cylinders, each with ing the anchor, what is the total weight of the
a = 220 N·m, x1 = 1.2 cm, and x2 = 10.2 cm. anchor plus the portion of the chain hanging out
(a) Draw a neat, accurate graph of F vs x, on of the ship? (Assume that the buoyancy of the
graph paper. anchor is negligible.)
(b) From the area under the curve, derive the (b) After they have raised the anchor by 1 m,
amount of work done in one stroke by one √
what is the weight they are raising?
cylinder. (c) Define y = 0 when the anchor is resting on
(c) Assume the engine is running at 4800 r.p.m., the bottom, and y = +30 m when it has been
so that during one minute, each of the six raised up to the ship. Draw a graph of the force
84 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

the crew has to exert to raise the anchor and

chain, as a function of y. (Assume that they are
raising it slowly, so water resistance is negligi-
ble.) It will not be a constant! Now find the
area under the graph, and determine the work
done by the crew in raising the anchor, in joules.
(d) Convert your answer from (c) into units of
kcal. √

7-a5 The figure, redrawn from Gray’s

Anatomy, shows the tension of which a muscle
is capable. The variable x is defined as the
contraction of the muscle from its maximum
length L, so that at x = 0 the muscle has length
L, and at x = L the muscle would theoretically
have zero length. In reality, the muscle can
only contract to x = cL, where c is less than 1. Problem 7-a5.
When the muscle is extended to its maximum
length, at x = 0, it is capable of the greatest
tension, To . As the muscle contracts, however, it
becomes weaker. Gray suggests approximating 7-d2 A bullet flies through the air, passes
this function as a linear decrease, which would through a paperback book, and then continues
theoretically extrapolate to zero at x = L. (a) to fly through the air beyond the book. When is
Find the maximum work the muscle can do in there a force? When is there energy?
√
one contraction, in terms of c, L, and To .
(b) Show that your answer to part a has the 7-d3 A 7.00 kg bowling ball moves at
right units. 3.00 m/s. How fast must a 2.45 g ping-pong ball
(c) Show that your answer to part a has the move so that the two balls have the same kinetic
right behavior when c = 0 and when c = 1. energy? √
(d) Gray also states that the absolute maximum
tension To has been found to be approximately 7-d4 You throw a ball straight up, and it
proportional to the muscle’s cross-sectional area lands with 2/3 the speed with which you threw
A (which is presumably measured at x = 0), it. What fraction of the initial kinetic energy was
with proportionality constant k. Approximating lost during the time the ball was in the air?√
the muscle as a cylinder, show that your answer
from part a can be reexpressed in terms of the
7-d5
√ The multiflash photograph shows a col-
volume, V , eliminating L and A. lision between two pool balls. The ball that
(e) Evaluate your result numerically for a biceps
was initially at rest shows up as a dark image
muscle with a volume of 200 cm3 , with c = 0.8
in its initial position, because its image was ex-
√
and k = 100 N/cm2 as estimated by Gray. posed several times before it was struck and be-
gan moving. By making measurements on the
figure, determine numerically whether or not en-
7-d1 Can kinetic energy ever be less than ergy appears to have been conserved in the colli-
zero? Explain. [Based on a problem by Serway sion. What systematic effects would limit the ac-
and Faughn.] curacy of your test? [From an example in PSSC
Physics.]
PROBLEMS 85

moving at 240 m/s, did serious damage. A mem-

ber of the board investigating the disaster said
this demonstrated that “people’s intuitive sense
of physics is sometimes way off.” (a) Compute
the kinetic energy of the foam, and (b) compare
with the energy of an 80 kg boulder moving at
2.4 m/s (the speed it would have if you dropped √
it from about knee-level).
(c) The boulder is a hundred times more mas-
sive, but its speed is a hundred times smaller, so
what’s counterintuitive about your results?

7-d9 A closed system can be a bad thing —

Problem 7-d5. for an astronaut sealed inside a space suit, get-
ting rid of body heat can be difficult. Suppose a
60-kg astronaut is performing vigorous physical
hw-colliding-balls activity, expending 200 W of power. If none of
7-d6 You are driving your car, and you hit a the heat can escape from her space suit, how long
brick wall head on, at full speed. The car has a will it take before her body temperature rises by
mass of 1500 kg. The kinetic energy released is 6◦ C (11◦ F), an amount sufficient to kill her? As-
a measure of how much destruction will be done sume that the amount of heat required to raise
to the car and to your body. Calculate the en- her body temperature by 1◦ C is the same as it
ergy released if you are traveling at (a) 40 mi/hr,would be for an equal mass of water. Express
and again (b) if you’re going 80 mi/hr. What is your answer in units of minutes. √
counterintuitive about this, and what implica-
tion does this have for driving at high speeds?
√ 7-d10 Experiments show that the power con-
sumed by a boat’s engine is approximately pro-
7-d7 Object A has a kinetic energy of 13.4 J. portional to the third power of its speed. (We
Object B has a mass that is greater by a factor assume that it is moving at constant speed.) (a)
of 3.77, but is moving more slowly by a factor of When a boat is crusing at constant speed, what
2.34. What is object B’s kinetic energy? [Based type of energy transformation do you think is
on a problem by Arnold Arons.] being performed? (b) If you upgrade to a mo-
tor with double the power, by what factor is
7-d8 One theory about the destruction of the your boat’s crusing speed increased? [Based on
space shuttle Columbia in 2003 is that one of its a problem by Arnold Arons.]
wings had been damaged on liftoff by a chunk of
foam insulation that fell off of one of its exter- 7-g1 Estimate the kinetic energy of an
nal fuel tanks. The New York Times reported on Olympic sprinter.
June 5, 2003, that NASA engineers had recreated
the impact to see if it would damage a mock-
up of the shuttle’s wing. “Before last week’s 7-g2 Estimate the kinetic energy of a buzzing
test, many engineers at NASA said they thought fly’s wing. (You may wish to review section 1.4
lightweight foam could not harm the seemingly on order-of-magnitude estimates.)
tough composite panels, and privately predicted
that the foam would bounce off harmlessly, like 7-g3 A blade of grass moves upward as it
a Nerf ball.” In fact, the 0.80 kg piece of foam, grows. Estimate its kinetic energy. (You may
86 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

wish to review section 1.4 on order-of-magnitude 7-j3 In each of the following situations, is the
estimates.) work being done positive, negative, or zero? (a)
a bull paws the ground; (b) a fishing boat pulls
7-g4 All stars, including our sun, show varia- a net through the water behind it; (c) the water
tions in their light output to some degree. Some resists the motion of the net through it; (d) you
stars vary their brightness by a factor of two stand behind a pickup truck and lower a bale of
or even more, but our sun has remained rela- hay from the truck’s bed to the ground. Explain.
tively steady during the hundred years or so that [Based on a problem by Serway and Faughn.]
accurate data have been collected. Neverthe-
less, it is possible that climate variations such 7-j4 (a) Suppose work is done in one-
as ice ages are related to long-term irregulari- dimensional motion. What happens to the work
ties in the sun’s light output. If the sun was if you reverse the direction of the positive coor-
to increase its light output even slightly, it could dinate axis? Base your answer directly on the
melt enough Antarctic ice to flood all the world’s definition of work as a transfer of mechanical en-
coastal cities. The total sunlight that falls on ergy. (b) Now answer the question based on the
16 W = F d rule.
Antarctica amounts to about 1 × 10 watts. In
the absence of natural or human-caused climate
change, this heat input to the poles is balanced 7-j5 Does it make sense to say that work is
by the loss of heat via winds, ocean currents, and conserved?
emission of infrared light, so that there is no net
melting or freezing of ice at the poles from year 7-j6 (a) You release a magnet on a tabletop
to year. Suppose that the sun changes its light near a big piece of iron, and the magnet leaps
output by some small percentage, but there is no across the table to the iron. Does the magnetic
change in the rate of heat loss by the polar caps. energy increase, or decrease? Explain. (b) Sup-
Estimate the percentage by which the sun’s light pose instead that you have two repelling mag-
output would have to increase in order to melt nets. You give them an initial push towards each
enough ice to raise the level of the oceans by 10 other, so they decelerate while approaching each
meters over a period of 10 years. (This would be other. Does the magnetic energy increase, or de-
enough to flood New York, London, and many crease? Explain.
other cities.) Melting 1 kg of ice requires 3 × 103
J.
7-j7 Students are often tempted to think of
potential energy and kinetic energy as if they
7-j1 A ball rolls up a ramp, turns around, were always related to each other, like yin and
and comes back down. When does it have the yang. To show this is incorrect, give examples of
greatest gravitational energy? The greatest ki- physical situations in which (a) PE is converted
netic energy? [Based on a problem by Serway to another form of PE, and (b) KE is converted
and Faughn.] to another form of KE.

7-j2 Can gravitational potential energy ever 7-j8 Anya and Ivan lean over a balcony side
be negative? Note that the question refers to by side. Anya throws a penny downward with
P E, not ∆P E, so that you must think about an initial speed of 5 m/s. Ivan throws a penny
how the choice of a reference level comes into upward with the same speed. Both pennies end
play. [Based on a problem by Serway and up on the ground below. Compare their kinetic
Faughn.] energies and velocities on impact.
PROBLEMS 87

7-j9 Decide whether the following statements centers, millions of times a second. If you put
regarding work and energy are true or false. an ice cube or a stick of butter in a microwave,
(a) The work done by a frictional force depends you’ll observe that the solid doesn’t heat very
only on the initial and final points of the path of quickly, although eventually melting begins in
a particle. one small spot. Once this spot forms, it grows
(b) If a force is perpendicular to the direction rapidly, while the rest of the solid remains solid;
of motion of an object, the force is not changing it appears that a microwave oven heats a liquid
the kinetic energy of the object. much more rapidly than a solid. Explain why
(c) The work done by a conservative force is zero. this should happen, based on the atomic-level
(d) Doubling the amount of time a force is ap- description of heat, solids, and liquids.
plied will double the work done on an object by Don’t repeat the following common mistakes:
the force. In a solid, the atoms are packed more tightly and
(e) Since KE is always positive, the net work on have less space between them. Not true. Ice
a particle must be positive. floats because it’s less dense than water.
In a liquid, the atoms are moving much faster.
7-j10 When you buy a helium-filled balloon, No, the difference in average speed between ice
◦ ◦
the seller has to inflate it from a large metal at −1 C and water at 1 C is only 0.4%.
cylinder of the compressed gas. The helium in-
side the cylinder has energy, as can be demon- 7-j13 The figure above is from a classic 1920
strated for example by releasing a little of it into physics textbook by Millikan and Gale. It rep-
the air: you hear a hissing sound, and that sound resents a method for raising the water from the
energy must have come from somewhere. The to- pond up to the water tower, at a higher level,
tal amount of energy in the cylinder is very large, without using a pump. Water is allowed into the
and if the valve is inadvertently damaged or bro- drive pipe, and once it is flowing fast enough, it
ken off, the cylinder can behave like a bomb or forces the valve at the bottom closed. Explain
a rocket. how this works in terms of conservation of mass
Suppose the company that puts the gas in the and energy.
cylinders prepares cylinder A with half the nor-
mal amount of pure helium, and cylinder B with 7-m1 A grasshopper with a mass of 110 mg
the normal amount. Cylinder B has twice as falls from rest from a height of 310 cm. On the
much energy, and yet the temperatures of both way down, it dissipates 1.1 mJ of heat due to air
cylinders are the same. Explain, at the atomic resistance. At what speed, in m/s, does it hit
level, what form of energy is involved, and why the ground?
cylinder B has twice as much. . Solution, p. 236
7-m2 Suppose that the cost of energy in your
7-j11 Explain in terms of conservation of en- city is 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. A cost-efficient
ergy why sweating cools your body, even though light bulb uses energy at a rate of 25 W. How
the sweat is at the same temperature as your much does it cost to leave the light on for the
body. Describe the forms of energy involved in entire month of January? √
this energy transformation. Why don’t you get
the same cooling effect if you wipe the sweat off 7-m3 Lisa times herself running up the stairs
with a towel? Hint: The sweat is evaporating. of her science building and finds that it takes her
23 s to reach the top floor. Her mass is 44 kg.
7-j12 A microwave oven works by twisting If the vertical height reached is 11.0 m, what is
molecules one way and then the other, counter- minimum average power she would have to have
clockwise and then clockwise about their own produced during the climb (i.e., only taking into
88 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Problem 7-j13.

account the energy required to overcome grav- must be dropped if the energy released on im-
ity)? √
pact is to vaporize it. Assume that all the heat
goes into the water, not into the dirt it strikes,
7-m4 How long will it take a 3.92 kW motor, and ignore the relatively small amount of energy
operating at full power, to lift a 1150 kg car to required to heat the water from room tempera-
a height of 25.0 m? Assume frictional forces are ture to 100◦ C. [Numerical check, not for credit:
negligible. (To make this more vivid for people Plugging in Eb = 2.3 MJ/kg should give a result √
in the US, 3.92 kW is 5.26 horsepower.) √
of 230 km.]
(b) Show that the units of your answer in part a
7-m5 A roller coaster starts from rest and de- come out right based on the units given for Eb .
scends 35 meters in its initial drop and then rises
23 meters before going over a hill. A passenger 7-m8 Most modern bow hunters in the U.S.
at the top of the hill feels an apparent weight use a fancy mechanical bow called a compound
which is 2/3 of her normal weight. By using the bow, which looks nothing like what most people
fact that the energy loss due to friction must be imagine when they think of a bow and arrow. It
greater than zero, find a bound on the radius of has a system of pulleys designed to produce the
curvature of the first hill. Is this an upper bound, force curve shown in the figure, where F is the
or a lower bound? √
force required to pull the string back, and x is
the distance between the string and the center
7-m6 A piece of paper of mass 4.5 g is of the bow’s body. It is not a linear Hooke’s-
dropped from a height 1.0 m above the ground. law graph, as it would be for an old-fashioned
The paper dissipates 37 mJ of energy through bow. The big advantage of the design is that
frictional heating on its way down. relatively little force is required to hold the bow
(a) How much kinetic energy does the paper have √
stretched to point B on the graph. This is the
when it reaches the ground? force required from the hunter in order to hold
(b) What is the speed of the paper when it hits the bow ready while waiting for a shot. Since it
the ground? √
may be necessary to wait a long time, this force
can’t be too big. An old-fashioned bow, designed
7-m7 Let Eb be the energy required to boil to require the same amount of force when fully
one kg of water. (a) Find an equation for the drawn, would shoot arrows at much lower speeds,
minimum height from which a bucket of water since its graph would be a straight line from A
PROBLEMS 89

to B. For the graph shown in the figure (taken (b) How much of a gain in temperature should
from realistic data), find the speed at which a there be between the top and bottom of a 50-
26 g arrow is released, assuming that 70% of the meter waterfall? (c) What assumptions did you
mechanical work done by the hand is actually have to make in order to calculate your answer to
transmitted to the arrow. (The other 30% is lost part b? In reality, would the temperature change
to frictional heating inside the bow and kinetic be more than or less than what you calculated?
energy of the recoiling and vibrating bow.) √ [Based on a problem by Arnold Arons.] √

7-m11 Weiping lifts a rock with a weight of

1.0 N through a height of 1.0 m, and then lowers
it back down to the starting point. Bubba pushes
a table 1.0 m across the floor at constant speed,
requiring a force of 1.0 N, and then pushes it
back to where it started. (a) Compare the total
work done by Weiping and Bubba. (b) Check
that your answers to part a make sense, using
the definition of work: work is the transfer of
energy. In your answer, you’ll need to discuss
Problem 7-m8. what specific type of energy is involved in each
case.

7-m9 The following table gives the amount 7-p1 At a given temperature, the average ki-
of energy required in order to heat, melt, or boil netic energy per molecule is a fixed value, so
a gram of water. for instance in air, the more massive oxygen
heat 1 g of ice by 1◦ C 2.05 J molecules are moving more slowly on the aver-
melt 1 g of ice 333 J age than the nitrogen molecules. The ratio of
heat 1 g of water by 1◦ C 4.19 J the masses of oxygen and nitrogen molecules is
boil 1 g of water 2500 J 16.00 to 14.01. Now suppose a vessel contain-
heat 1 g of steam by 1◦ C 2.01 J ing some air is surrounded by a vacuum, and the
(a) How much energy is required in order to con- vessel has a tiny hole in it, which allows the air
vert 1.00 g of ice at -20 ◦ C into steam at 137 ◦ C?
to slowly leak out. The molecules are bouncing
√
around randomly, so a given molecule will have
(b) What is the minimum amount of hot water to “try” many times before it gets lucky enough
that could melt 1.00 g of ice? √ to head out through the hole. Find the rate at
which oxygen leaks divided by the rate at which
7-m10 Lord Kelvin, a physicist, told the story nitrogen leaks. (Define this rate according to the
of how he encountered James Joule when Joule fraction of the gas that leaks out in a given time,
was on his honeymoon. As he traveled, Joule not the mass or number of molecules leaked per
would stop with his wife at various waterfalls, unit time.) √
and measure the difference in temperature be-
tween the top of the waterfall and the still water 7-p2 In the earth’s atmosphere, the molecules
at the bottom. (a) It would surprise most people are constantly moving around. Because tem-
to learn that the temperature increased. Why perature is a measure of kinetic energy per
should there be any such effect, and why would molecule, the average kinetic energy of each type
Joule care? How would this relate to the energy of molecule is the same, e.g., the average KE of
concept, of which he was the principal inventor? the O2 molecules is the same as the average KE
90 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

of the N2 molecules. (a) If the mass of an O2 100 horsepower, what final speed will you reach?
molecule is eight times greater than that of a He Note that this problem can be done without any
atom, what is the ratio of their average speeds? conversions or knowledge of US units. √
Which way is the ratio, i.e., which is typically
moving faster? (b) Use your result from part a 7-s1 A soccer ball of mass m is moving at
to explain why any helium occurring naturally in speed v when you kick it in the same direction
the atmosphere has long since escaped into outer it is moving. You kick it with constant force F ,
space, never to return. (Helium is obtained com- and you want to triple the ball’s speed. Over
mercially by extracting it from rocks.) You may what distance must your foot be in contact with
want to do problem 11-s1 first, for insight. √ the ball? √

7-p3 Two speedboats are identical, but one 7-s2 A laptop of mass m and a desktop com-
has more people aboard than the other. Al- puter of mass 3m are both dropped from the top
though the total masses of the two boats are of a building. The laptop has kinetic energy K
unequal, suppose that they happen to have the when it reaches the ground.
same kinetic energy. In a boat, as in a car, it’s (a) Find the kinetic energy of the desktop ma- √
important to be able to stop in time to avoid chine on impact, in terms of K, m, or both.
hitting things. (a) If the frictional force from (b) Find its speed in terms of the same variables.
√
the water is the same in both cases, how will
the boats’ stopping distances compare? Explain. 7-s3 A girl picks up a stone of mass m from
(b) Compare the times required for the boats to the ground and throws it at speed v, releasing
stop. the stone from a height h above the ground. If
the maximum power output of the girl is P , how
7-p4 A car starts from rest at t = 0, and many stones could she throw in a time T ?
starts speeding up with constant acceleration.
(a) Find the car’s kinetic energy in terms of its 7-s4 A car accelerates from rest. At low
mass, m, acceleration, a, and the time, t. (b) speeds, its acceleration is limited by static fric-
Your answer in the previous part also equals the tion, so that if we press too hard on the gas, we
amount of work, W , done from t = 0 until time will “burn rubber” (or, for many newer cars, a
t. Take the derivative of the previous expression computerized traction-control system will over-
to find the power expended by the car at time t. ride the gas pedal). At higher speeds, the limit
(c) Suppose two cars with the same mass both on acceleration comes from the power of the en-
start from rest at the same time, but one has gine, which puts a limit on how fast kinetic en-
twice as much acceleration as the other. At any ergy can be developed.
moment, how many times more power is being (a) Show that if a force F is applied to an object
dissipated by the more quickly accelerating car? moving at speed v, the power required is given
(The answer is not 2.) √ by P = vF .
(b) Find the speed v at which we cross over from
7-p5 While in your car on the freeway, you’re the first regime described above to the second.
travelling at a constant speed of 55 miles/hour, At speeds higher than this, the engine does not
requiring a power output of 50 horsepower from have enough power to burn rubber. Express your
the engine. Almost all of the energy provided by result in terms of the car’s power P , its mass m,
√
the engine is used to fight air resistance, which is the coefficient of static friction µs , and g.
proportional in magnitude to the square of the (c) Show that your answer to part b has units
speed of the car. If you step on the gas pedal that make sense.
all the way and increase the power output to (d) Show that the dependence of your answer on
PROBLEMS 91

each of the four variables makes sense physically. (d) The speed of the block at the bottom of the
(e) The 2010 Maserati Gran Turismo Convertible ramp is only half of what it would have been
has a maximum power of 3.23×105 W (433 horse- without friction. Knowing this, what is the coef-
power) and a mass (including a 50-kg driver) of ficient of friction µk in terms of the other given
2.03 × 103 kg. (This power is the maximum the quantities? √
engine can supply at its optimum frequency of
7600 r.p.m. Presumably the automatic trans- 7-s7 Some kids are playing a game where they
mission is designed so a gear is available in which shoot a ball of mass m off a spring into a cup that
the engine will be running at very nearly this fre- is a distance D away from the base of the table
quency when the car is moving at v.) Rubber on (see figure). The ball starts at a height H, and
asphalt has µs ≈ 0.9. Find v for this car. An- the spring has spring constant k. The goal of
swer: 18 m/s, or about 40 miles per hour. the problem is to find the distance you should
(f) Our analysis has neglected air friction, which compress the spring so that the ball lands in the
can probably be approximated as a force propor- cup.
tional to v 2 . The existence of this force is the rea- (a) Infer as much as possible about the form of
son that the car has a maximum speed, which is the result based on units.
176 miles per hour. To get a feeling for how good (b) Find the result. √
an approximation it is to ignore air friction, find
what fraction of the engine’s maximum power is
being used to overcome air resistance when the
car is moving at the speed v found in part e.
Answer: 1%

7-s5 A piece of paper of mass m is dropped

from a height H above the ground. Because of
air resistance, the paper lands with only 1/5th
the speed that it would have landed with had
there been no air resistance. Problem 7-s7.
(a) What is the work on the paper due to √
gravity?
(b) What is the work on the paper due to the 7-s8 A person on a bicycle is to coast down
drag force? a ramp of height h and then pass through a
√ circular loop of radius r. What is the smallest
value of h for which the cyclist will complete the
7-s6 A block of mass m is at the top of a loop without falling? (Ignore the kinetic energy
√
ramp of length L inclined at angle θ with re- of the spinning wheels.)
spect to the horizontal. The block slides down
the ramp, and the coefficient of friction between
the two surfaces is µk . Parts a-c are about find-
ing the speed of the block when it reaches the 7-s9 Suppose that the cyclist in problem 7-
bottom of the ramp. s8 wants to have a little extra security, passing
(a) Based on units, infer as much as possible through the top of the loop at twice the mini-
about the form of the answer. mum speed that would have theoretically been
√
(b) Find the speed. required. √
(c) Check that the dependence of the result on (a) What is this speed?
the variables make sense. Under what conditions (b) Find the height of the ramp that is needed. √
is the result unphysical?
92 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

7-s10 Consider the system shown in the fig- choose the correct root, note that x needs to be
√
ure. Block A has mass MA and block B has mass positive.
MB . There is a coefficient of kinetic friction µk (b) What is the speed of the box when it is first
√
between block A and the table. The system is in contact with the platform?
released from rest and block B drops a distance (c) What is the maximum speed of the box?
D. Hint: the box speeds up until the force from the
(a) What is the work done by gravity on block √
spring equals the gravitational force. √
B? √
?
(b) What is the tension in the string?
(c) What is the work done on block B by the √
string?
(d) By adding your results in parts a and c, find√
the speed of block B.
(e) Show that the sum of the works done on block
A equals the change in KE of block A.

Problem 7-s12.

7-s13 A skateboarder starts at rest nearly at

the top of a giant cylinder, and begins rolling
down its side. (If he started exactly at rest and
Problem 7-s10. exactly at the top, he would never get going!)
Show that his board loses contact with the pipe
after he has dropped by a height equal to one
7-s11 (a) A circular hoop of mass m and ra- third the radius of the pipe.
dius r spins like a wheel while its center remains ?
at rest. Its period (time required for one revo-
lution) is T . Show that its kinetic energy equals 7-s14 The figure shows a slab of mass M
2π 2 mr2 /T 2 . rolling freely down an inclined plane inclined at
(b) If such a hoop rolls with its center moving an angle θ to the horizontal. The slab is on top of
at velocity v, its kinetic energy equals (1/2)mv 2 , a set of rollers, each of radius r, that roll without
plus the amount of kinetic energy found in the slipping at their top and bottom surfaces. The
first part of this problem. Show that a hoop rolls rollers may for example be cylinders, or spheres
down an inclined plane with half the acceleration such as ball bearings. Each roller’s center of mass
that a frictionless sliding block would have. coincides with its geometrical center. The sum
of the masses of the rollers is m, and the sum
7-s12 As shown in the figure, a box of mass of their moments of inertia (each about its own
m is dropped from a height H above a spring. center) is I. Find the acceleration of the slab,
The platform has negligible mass. The spring and verify that your expression has the correct
has spring constant k. behavior in interesting limiting cases. √
(a) By what amount is the spring compressed? ?
Your answer requires the quadratic equation; to
PROBLEMS 93

√
the object equal to zero?
(b)
p What is the force on the particle when x =
2 α/β? √

7-v3 The potential energy of a particle mov-

ing in a certain one-dimensional region of space
is

U (x) = (1.00 J/m3 )x3 − (7.00 J/m2 )x2

+ (10.0 J/m)x.

(a) Determine the force F (x) acting on the par-

ticle as a function of position.
(b) Is the force you found in part a conservative,
or non-conservative? Explain.
(c) Let “R” refer to the region x = −1.00 m
to x = +6.00 m. Draw U (x) on R (label your
Problem 7-s13.
axes). On your plot, label all points of stable
and unstable equilibrium on R, and find their
locations.
(d) What is the maximum force (in magnitude)
experienced by a particle on R?
(e) The particle has mass 1.00 kg and is released
from rest at x = 2.00 m. Describe the subse-
quent motion. What is the maximum KE that
the particle achieves?
Problem 7-s14.
7-v4 The potential energy of a particle mov-
ing in a certain one-dimensional region of space
7-v1 The magnitude of the force between two is
magnets separated by a distance r can be ap-
proximated as kr−3 for large values of r. The U (x) = (1.00 J/m4 )x4 − (4.00 J/m2 )x2
constant k depends on the strengths of the mag- + (1.00 J/m)x.
nets and the relative orientations of their north
and south poles. Two magnets are released on You might want to plot the function U (x) using
a slippery surface at an initial distance ri , and a graphing calculator or an online utility such as
begin sliding towards each other. What will be desmos.com. An object of mass 2.00 kg is re-
the total kinetic energy of the two magnets when leased from rest at x = 2.00 m.
they reach a final distance rf ? (Ignore friction.) (a) At what position does the object have maxi-√
√
mum speed?
(b) What is the maximum speed of the object?√

7-v2 An object’s potential energy is described (c) What is the velocity of the object when it √
by the function U (x) = −αx2 +βx4 , where α and reaches the unstable equilibrium point?
β are positive constants. (d) What is the lowest value of x that the object
(a) For what positive value of x is the force on gets to?
94 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

√
be strong enough to survive the extreme accel-
7-v5 A banana starts at rest and is subject erations. Suppose that the rail gun capsule is
to the force shown. This force is the only force launched straight up, and that the force −cx
of air
acting on the banana. friction acting on it is given by F = be , where
(a) What is the work done on the banana as it x is the altitude, b and c are constants, and e is
√
moves from x = 0 m to 2 m? the base of natural logarithms. The exponen-
√
(b) From 2 m to 3 m? tial decay occurs because the atmosphere gets
(c) If this force acts on the banana for 0.5 s, what thinner with increasing altitude. (In reality, the
is the average power delivered to the banana? force would probably drop off even faster than
√
an exponential, because the capsule would be
slowing down somewhat.) Find the amount of
kinetic energy lost by the capsule due to air fric-
tion between when it is launched and when it
is completely beyond the atmosphere. (Gravity
is negligible, since the air friction force is much
greater than the gravitational force.) √

7-v9 The figure shows two unequal masses,

M and m, connected by a string running over a
Problem 7-v5. pulley. This system was analyzed previously in
problem 5-p2 on p. 63, using Newton’s laws.
(a) Analyze the system using conservation of
7-v6 An object of mass m is moving with
energy instead. Find the speed the weights gain
speed v in the +x-direction when, starting at x =
after being released from rest and traveling √a
0, it is subjected to the position-dependent force
2 distance h.
F (x) = −kx , where k is a positive constant.
(b) Use your result from part a to find the
What is the maximum x-coordinate the object
acceleration, reproducing the result of the √
will reach? √ earlier problem.

7-v7 In 1935, Yukawa proposed an early

theory of the force that held the neutrons and
protons together in the nucleus. His equation
for the potential energy of two such particles,
at a center-to-center distance r, was P E(r) =
gr−1 e−r/a , where g parametrizes the strength
of the interaction, e is the base of natural log-
arithms, and a is about 10−15 m. Find the force
between two nucleons that would be consistent
with this equation for the potential energy. √

7-v8 A rail gun is a device like a train on

a track, with the train propelled by a power-
ful electrical pulse. Very high speeds have been
demonstrated in test models, and rail guns have
been proposed as an alternative to rockets for Problem 7-v9.
sending into outer space any object that would
PROBLEMS 95

7-v10 A mass moving in one dimension is at- bead at rest at the origin, there is no way to
tached to a horizontal spring. It slides on the sur- predict when it will start moving.
face below it, with equal coefficients of static and ?
kinetic friction, µk = µs . The equilibrium posi-
tion is x = 0. If the mass is pulled to some initial
position and released from rest, it will complete
some number of oscillations before friction brings
it to a stop. When released from x = a (a > 0),
it completes exactly 1/4 of an oscillation, i.e., it
stops precisely at x = 0. Similarly, define b > 0
as the greatest x from which it could be released
and comlete 1/2 of an oscillation, stopping on
the far side and not coming back toward equi-
librium. Find b/a. Hint: To keep the algebra
simple, set every fixed parameter of the system
equal to 1. √

7-v11 In 2003, physicist and philosopher

John Norton came up with the following appar-
ent paradox, in which Newton’s laws, which ap-
pear deterministic, can produce nondeterminis-
tic results. Suppose that a bead moves friction-
lessly on a curved wire under the influence of
gravity. The shape of the wire is defined by the
function y(x), which passes through the origin,
and the bead is released from rest at the ori-
gin. For convenience of notation, choose units
such that g = 1, and define ẏ = dy/ dt and
y 0 = dy/ dx.
(a) Show that the equation of motion is
1
y = − ẏ 2 1 + y 0−2 .

2

(b) To simplify the calculations, assume from

now on that y 0 1. Find a shape for the wire √
such that x = t4 is a solution. (Ignore units.)
(c) Show that not just the motion assumed in
part b, but any motion of the following form is
a solution:
(
0 if t ≤ t0
x=
(t − t0 )4 if t ≥ t0

This is remarkable because there is no physical

principle that determines t0 , so if we place the
96 CHAPTER 7. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
8 Conservation of momentum
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems the same everywhere, and this symmetry leads to
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although a conservation law, conservation of momentum.
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- The momentum of a material object, notated p
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is for obscure reasons, is given by the product of
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to its mass and its momentum,
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is p = mv. (8.1)
needed in order to do the problems, and to show From the definition, we see that momentum is a
what terminology and notation are being used. vector. That’s important because up until now,
the only conserved quantities we’d encountered
were mass and energy, which are both scalars.
8.1 Momentum: a con- Clearly the laws of physics would be incomplete
served vector if we never had a law of physics that related to
the fact that the universe has three dimensions of
Consider the hockey puck in figure 8.1. If we space. For example, it wouldn’t violate conserva-
release it at rest, we expect it to remain at rest. tion of mass or energy if an object was moving in
If it did start moving all by itself, that would a certain direction and then suddenly changed its
be strange: it would have to pick some direction direction of motion, while maintaining the same
in which to move, and why would it have such speed.
a deep desire to visit the region of space on one If we differentiating the equation for momen-
side rather than the other? Such behavior, which tum with respect to time and apply Newton’s
is not actually observed, would suggest that the second law, we obtain
laws of physics differed between one region of dp
space and another. Ftotal = . (8.2)
dt
We can also see from this equation that in the
special case of a system of particles, conservation
of momentum is closely related to Newton’s third
law.

8.2 Collisions
A collision is an interaction between particles in
which the particles interact over some period of
time and then stop interacting. It is assumed
that external forces are negligible. Often the re-
sult of a collision can be uniquely predicted by
simultaneously imposing conservation of energy
and conservation of momentum,
Figure 8.1: A hockey puck is released at rest. X X
Will it start moving in some direction? Ej = Ej0 (8.3)
X X
0
pk = pk , (8.4)
The laws of physics are in fact observed to be

97
98 CHAPTER 8. CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM

where j runs over the types of energy and k over

the particles.
Some collisions are highly elastic, meaning
that little or no kinetic energy is transformed
into other forms, such as heat or sound. Other
collisions, for example car crashes, are highly in-
elastic. Unless we have some reason to believe
that the collision is elastic, we cannot assume
that the total kinetic energy is conserved.

8.3 The center of mass

Figure 4.4 on p. 44 showed two ice skaters, ini-
tially at rest, pushing off from each other in op-
posite directions. If their masses are equal, then
the average of their positions, (x1 + x2 )/2, re-
mains at rest. Generalizing this to more than one
dimension, more than two particles, and possibly
unequal masses, we define the center of mass of
a system of particles to be
P
mi xi
xcm = P , (8.5)
mi

which is a weighted average of all the position

vectors xi . The velocity vcm with which this
point moves is related to the total momentum of
the system by

ptotal = mtotal vcm . (8.6)

If no external force acts on the system, it follows

that vcm is constant. Often problems can be
simplified by adopting the center of mass frame
of reference, in which vcm = 0.
PROBLEMS 99

√
Problems t = τ?
(b) What is the final momentum of the object?
√
8-a1 When the contents of a refrigerator
cool down, the changed molecular speeds imply 8-d5 The force acting on an object is F =
changes in both momentum and energy. Why, At2 . The object is at rest at time t = 0. What
then, does a fridge transfer power through its is its momentum at t = T ? √
radiator coils, but not force?
. Solution, p. 236
8-a2 A firework shoots up into the air, and 8-g1 Decide whether the following statements
just before it explodes it has a certain momen- about one-dimensional motion are true or false:
tum and kinetic energy. What can you say about (a) The momentum transferred to an object is
the momenta and kinetic energies of the pieces equal to the final momentum of the object.
immediately after the explosion? [Based on a (b) The momentum delivered to an object by a
problem from PSSC Physics.] force F is equal to the average force on the ob-
. Solution, p. 236 ject multiplied by the time over which the force
acts on the object.
8-a3 Two people in a rowboat wish to move
(c) Momentum transfer has the same dimensions
around without causing the boat to move. What
as force (SI units of newtons).
should be true about their total momentum? Ex-
(d) The area underneath a momentum-vs-time
plain.
graph gives the average force delivered to an ob-
ject.
8-a4 Two blobs of putty collide head-on and
stick. The collision is completely symmetric: the
blobs are of equal mass, and they collide at equal 8-g2 Can the result of a collision always be
speeds. What becomes of the energy the blobs determined by the condition that both energy
had before the collision? The momentum? and momentum are conserved? If your answer is
no, give a counterexample.
8-d1 Derive a formula expressing the kinetic
energy of an object in terms of its momentum 8-g3 The big difference between the equations
and mass. √ for momentum and kinetic energy is that one is
proportional to v and one to v 2 . Both, how-
8-d2 Show that for a body made up of many ever, are proportional to m. Suppose someone
equal masses, the equation for the center of mass
tells you that there’s a third quantity, funkos-
becomes a simple average of all the positions of
ity, defined as f = m2 v, and that funkosity is
the masses. conserved. How do you know your leg is being
pulled?
8-d3 Objects of mass m and 4m are dropped . Solution, p. 236 ?
from the top of a building (both starting from
rest). When it hits the ground, the object of 8-j1 A mass m moving at velocity v collides
mass m has momentum p. What is the mo- with a stationary target having the same mass
mentum of the heavier object when it hits the m. Find the maximum amount of energy that
ground? can be released as heat and sound. √

8-d4 The force acting on an object is F = 8-j2 A bullet leaves the barrel of a gun with
Ae−t/τ , where A and τ are positive constants. a kinetic energy of 90 J. The gun barrel is 50 cm
The object is at rest at time t = 0. long. The gun has a mass of 4 kg, the bullet 10
(a) What is the momentum of the object at time g.
100 CHAPTER 8. CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM

√
(a) Find the bullet’s final velocity. √
is the velocity of the cars immediately after the
(b) Find the bullet’s final momentum. collision? √
(c) Find the momentum of the recoiling gun.
(d) Find the kinetic energy of the recoiling gun, 8-j6 Two equal masses travel at equal speeds
and explain why the recoiling gun does not kill and collide in a perfectly inelastic collision. The
the shooter. √ final velocity of the two masses is 1/3 the initial
speed. What was the angle between the veloc-
8-j3 The figure shows the force acting on a ity vectors of the two masses when they collided?
58.5 g tennis ball as a function of time. (Give an exact expression, not a decimal approx-
(a) What is the momentum transferred to the √ imation.) √
tennis ball?
(b) What is the final speed of the tennis ball √if
8-j7 A ball of mass m1 is moving to the right
it is initially at rest?
at speed v0 when it collides with a ball of mass
(c) What is the final speed of the tennis ball if
m2 initially at rest. After the collision, m1 loses
its initial velocity is −25m/s? √ 75% of its initial kinetic energy and has a veloc-
ity at an angle θ1 = 60◦ below the horizontal, as
shown.
(a) What is the speed of ball 1 after the collision?
√

(b) What are the x and y components of the mo- √

mentum of ball 1 after the collision?
(c) What are the x and y components of the mo- √
mentum of ball 2 after the collision?
(d) What fraction of the initial kinetic energy √
does ball 2 have after the collision?
Problem 8-j3. (e) Is this collision elastic, or inelastic? Explain.

8-j4 A learjet traveling due east at 300 mi/hr

collides with a jumbo jet which was heading
southwest at 150 mi/hr. The jumbo jet’s mass is
five times greater than that of the learjet. When
they collide, the learjet sticks into the fuselage
of the jumbo jet, and they fall to earth together.
Their engines stop functioning immediately af-
ter the collision. On a map, what will be the
direction from the location of the collision to the
place where the wreckage hits the ground? (Give
an angle.) √
Problem 8-j7.

8-j5 A 1000 kg car approaches an intersection

traveling north at 20.0 m/s. A 1200 kg car ap- hw-collision-2d-given-one-angle
proaches the same intersection traveling east at 8-j8 The graph shows the force, in meganew-
22.0 m/s. The two cars collide at the intersection tons, exerted by a rocket engine on the rocket as
and lock together. The drivers probably wish it a function of time. If the rocket’s mass is 4000
was all over now, but they’re still moving. What kg, at what speed is the rocket moving when the
PROBLEMS 101

engine stops firing? Assume it goes straight up, heat and sound are produced. Find the velocity
and neglect the force of gravity, which is much of the pin immediately after the collision.
less than a meganewton. √
8-m1 A student of mass M is traveling on
his skateboard of mass m. They are both mov-
ing at speed v, when suddenly the student kicks
the board back so that it is immediately at rest
relative to the ground. How fast is the student
moving after kicking back the skateboard?

8-m2 Rachel and Sara are playing a game of

tug-of-war on frictionless ice. They are separated
by a distance L, and the coordinate system is
given in the figure (with Sara at x = +L/2 and
Rachel at x = −L/2). Rachel has a mass MR ,
Problem 8-j8. Sara has a mass MS , and MR > MS . Where will
they meet?

hw-rocket
8-j9 Cosmic rays are particles from outer
space, mostly protons and atomic nuclei, that
are continually bombarding the earth. Most of
them, although they are moving extremely fast,
have no discernible effect even if they hit your
body, because their masses are so small. Their Problem 8-m2.
energies vary, however, and a very small minority
of them have extremely large energies. In some
cases the energy is as much as several Joules, 8-m3 The figure shows a view from above
which is comparable to the KE of a well thrown of a collision about to happen between two air
rock! If you are in a plane at a high altitude and hockey pucks sliding without friction. They have
are so incredibly unlucky as to be hit by one of the same speed, vi , before the collision, but the
these rare ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, what big puck is 2.3 times more massive than the small
would you notice, the momentum imparted to one. Their sides have sticky stuff on them, so
your body, the energy dissipated in your body when they collide, they will stick together. At
as heat, or both? Base your conclusions on nu- what angle will they emerge from the collision?
merical estimates, not just random speculation. In addition to giving a numerical answer, please
(At these high speeds, one should really take into indicate by drawing on the figure how your angle
account the deviations from Newtonian physics is defined.
described by Einstein’s special theory of relativ- . Solution, p. 236
ity. Don’t worry about that, though.) 8-m4 The moon doesn’t really just orbit the
Earth. By Newton’s third law, the moon’s grav-
8-j10 A 10-kg bowling ball moving at 2.0 m/s itational force on the earth is the same as the
hits a 1.0-kg bowling pin, which is initially at earth’s force on the moon, and the earth must re-
rest. The other pins are all gone already, and the spond to the moon’s force by accelerating. If we
collision is head-on, so that the motion is one- consider the earth and moon in isolation and ig-
dimensional. Assume that negligible amounts of nore outside forces, then Newton’s first law says
102 CHAPTER 8. CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM

8-m7 A bullet of mass m strikes a block of

mass M which is hanging by a string of length
L from the ceiling. It is observed that, after
the sticky collision, the maximum angle that the
string makes with the vertical is θ. This setup is
called a ballistic pendulum, and it can be used
to measure the speed of the bullet.
(a) What vertical height does the block reach?√

(b) What was the speed of the block just after√

the collision?
(c) What was the speed of the bullet just before
Problem 8-m3. it struck the block? √

their common center of mass doesn’t accelerate, 8-m8 A car of mass M and a truck of mass
i.e., the earth wobbles around the center of mass2M collide head-on with equal speeds v, and the
of the earth-moon system once per month, and collision is perfectly inelastic, i.e., the maximum
the moon also orbits around this point. The possible amount of kinetic energy is transformed
moon’s mass is 81 times smaller than the earth’s.into heat and sound, consistent with conserva-
Compare the kinetic energies of the earth and tion of momentum.
moon. (a) What is the magnitude of the change in mo- √
mentum of the car?
(b) What is the magnitude of the change in mo-
8-m5 A very massive object with velocity v √
mentum of the truck?
collides head-on with an object at rest whose
(c) What is the final speed of the two vehicles?√
mass is very small. No kinetic energy is con-
verted into other forms. Prove that the low-mass
(d) What fraction of the initial kinetic energy
object recoils with velocity 2v. [Hint: Use the
was lost as a result of the collision?
center-of-mass frame of reference.] √

8-m6 An ice puck of mass m, traveling with 8-m9 A 5.00 kg firework is launched straight
speed v, hits another identical ice puck that is up into the air. When it reaches its maximum
sitting at rest. The collision is 1-dimensional. height of H = 140 m, it explodes into two frag-
(a) If the collision is perfectly elastic, what is ments that fly off in horizontal directions. The
the final speed of the puck that was initially at√ explosion is very quick, and only lasts 15 ms.
rest? One of the two fragments (fragment A, with mass
(b) If the collision is perfectly inelastic, what MA = 2.00 kg) lands 290 meters away from the
is the final speed of the two pucks after the √ initial launch position.
collision? (a) Find the speed of fragment A just after the √
(c) If the collision is perfectly inelastic, what explosion.
fraction of the total energy was lost during the √ (b) By using conservation of momentum and
collision? your answer from part a, find the speed of the
(d) If one-fourth of the initial kinetic energy was other fragment (call this fragment B) just after√
lost during the collision, what is the final speed the explosion.
of the puck that was initially at rest? √ (c) Calculate the magnitude of the momentum
transferred to fragment A due to the explosion.
PROBLEMS 103

√
8-m13 A flexible rope of mass m and length
(d) Calculate the magnitude of the impulse de- L slides without friction over the edge of a table.
livered by gravity to fragment A over the course√
Let x be the length of the rope that is hanging
of the explosion. over the edge at a given moment in time.
(e) How far away from the initial launch position (a) Show that x satisfies the equation of motion
does fragment B land? Hint: the center of mass d2 x/ dt2 = gx/L. [Hint: Use F = dp/ dt, which
of the two fragments lands at the location where allows you to handle the two parts of the rope
the firework was initially launched. √
separately even though mass is moving out of
one part and into the other.]
8-m10 An object of mass m, moving at veloc- (b) Give a physical explanation for the fact that
ity u, undergoes a one-dimensional elastic colli- a larger value of x on the right-hand side of the
sion with a mass km that is initially at rest. Let equation leads to a greater value of the acceler-
the positive direction be in the direction of the ation on the left side.
initial motion, so that u > 0. (a) What is the (c) When we take the second derivative of the
√
final velocity of mass m? function x(t) we are supposed to get essentially
(b) What is the final velocity of the mass km? the same function back again, except for a con-
√
? stant out in front. The function ex has the prop-
8-m11 Two blocks, each of mass M , are con- erty that it is unchanged by differentiation, so it
nected by a thread and moving with speed v0 . is reasonable to look for solutions to this problem
Between them is also a spring of spring constant that are of the form x = bect , where b and c are
k, and it is compressed a distance x (so that constants. Show that this does indeed provide a
the tension in the thread is kx). Suddenly, the solution for two specific values of c (and for any
thread breaks, and the spring relaxes to its equi- value of b).
librium length. Find the speed of the block that (d) Show that the sum of any two solutions to
is pushed forward by the spring. the equation of motion is also a solution.
? (e) Find the solution for the case where the rope
8-m12 Suppose a system consisting of point- starts at rest at t = 0 with some nonzero value
like particles has a total kinetic energy Kcm mea- of x.
sured in the center-of-mass frame of reference. ?
Since they are pointlike, they cannot have any
energy due to internal motion. 8-m14 A rocket ejects exhaust with an ex-
(a) Prove that in a different frame of reference, haust velocity u. The rate at which the exhaust
moving with velocity u relative to the center- mass is used (mass per unit time) is b. We as-
of-mass frame, the total kinetic energy equals sume that the rocket accelerates in a straight line
Kcm + M |u|2 /2, where M is the total mass. starting from rest, and that no external forces act
[Hint: You can save yourself a lot of writing if on it. Let the rocket’s initial mass (fuel plus the
you express the total kinetic energy using the dot body and payload) be mi , and mf be its final
product.] mass, after all the fuel is used up. (a) Find the
(b) Use this to prove that if energy is conserved rocket’s final velocity, v, in terms of u, mi , and
in one frame of reference, then it is conserved in mf . Neglect the effects of special relativity. (b)
every frame of reference. The total energy equals A typical exhaust velocity for chemical rocket en-
the total kinetic energy plus the sum of the po- gines is 4000 m/s. Estimate the initial mass of
tential energies due to the particles’ interactions a rocket that could accelerate a one-ton payload
with each other, which we assume depends only to 10% of the speed of light, and show that this
on the distance between particles. design won’t work. (For the sake of the estimate,
ignore the mass of the fuel tanks. The speed is
104 CHAPTER 8. CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM

fairly small compared to c, so it’s not an unrea-

sonable approximation to ignore relativity.)√
?
9 Conservation of angular momentum
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems it wouldn’t make sense for the spin to start spon-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although taneously, because then the axis of spin would
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- have to point in some direction, but there is no
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is way to determine why one particular direction
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to would be preferred.
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- As a concrete example, suppose that a bike
pose of the summary is to show what material is wheel of radius r and mass m is spinning at a
needed in order to do the problems, and to show rate such that a point on the rim (where all the
what terminology and notation are being used. mass is concentrated) moves at speed v. We then
define the wheel’s angular momentum L to have
magnitude mvr.
9.1 Angular momentum More generally, we define the angular momen-
tum of a system of particles to be the sum of
We have discarded Newton’s laws of motion and
the quantity r × p, where r is the position of a
begun the process of rebuilding the laws of me-
particle relative to an arbitrarily chosen point
chanics from scratch using conservation laws. So
called the axis, p is the particle’s momentum
far we have encountered conservation of energy
vector, and × represents the vector cross prod-
and momentum.
uct. This definition is chosen both because ex-
It is not hard to come up with examples to
periments show that this is the quantity that is
show that this list of conservation laws is incom-
conserved. It follows from the definition that an-
plete. The earth has been rotating about its own
gular momentum is a vector, and that its direc-
axis at very nearly the same speed (once every
tion is defined by the same right-hand rule used
24 hours) for all of human history. Why hasn’t
to define the cross product.
the planet’s rotation slowed down and come to
a halt? Conservation of energy doesn’t protect
us against this unpleasant scenario. The kinetic
energy tied up in the earth’s spin could be trans- 9.2 Rigid-body dynamics
formed into some other type of energy, such as
heat. Nor is such a deceleration prevented by In the special case where a rigid body rotates
conservation of momentum, since the total mo- about an axis of symmetry and its center of mass
mentum of the earth due to its rotation cancels is at rest, the dimension parallel to the axis be-
out. comes irrelevant both kinematically and dynam-
There is a third important conservation law ically. We can imagine squashing the system flat
in mechanics, which is conservation of angular so that the object rotates in a two-dimensional
momentum. A spinning body such as the earth plane about a fixed point. The kinetic energy in
has angular momentum. Conservation of an- this situation is
gular momentum arises from symmetry of the 1 2
laws of physics with respect to rotation. That is, K= Iω
2
there is no special direction built into the laws of
physics, such as the direction toward the constel-
and the angular momentum about the center of
lation Sagittarius. Suppose that a non-spinning
mass is
asteroid were to gradually start spinning. Even if
there were some source of energy to initiate this
spin (perhaps the heat energy stored in the rock), L = Iω,

105
106 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

Figure 9.1: Moments of inertia of some geometric shapes.

where I is a constant of proportionality, called of transfer or transformation:

the moment of inertia. These relations are anal-
dE
ogous to K = (1/2)mv 2 and p = mv for mo- P = [power]
tion of a particle. The angular velocity can also dt
dp
be made into a vector ω, which points along the F= [force]
axis in the right-handed direction. We then have dt
L = Iω. dL
τ = [torque].
For a system of particles, the moment of iner- dt
tia is given by The torque exerted by a force F can be expressed
I=
X
mi ri2 , as

where ri is the ith particle’s distance from the τ = r × F.

axis. For a continuous distribution of mass,
Z For rigid-body rotation about an axis of symme-
I = r2 dm. try, we have
τ
α= ,
Figure ?? gives the moments of inertia of some I
commonly encountered shapes. which is analogous to Newton’s second law.

9.3 Torque 9.4 Statics

For each of the three conserved quantities we If an object is to be in equilibrium, both the total
have encountered so far, we can define a rate torque and the total force acting on it must be
9.4. STATICS 107

zero:
X
F=0
X
τ =0

We consider an object to be in equilibrium when

these conditions apply, even if it is moving.
An equilibrium can be stable, like a marble at
the bottom of a bowl, unstable, like a marble
placed on top of a hemispherical hill, or neutral,
like a marble placed on a flat tabletop.
108 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

Problems dense matter known as a white dwarf. Assume

that its radius becomes 5.8 × 106 m (similar
9-a1 A skilled motorcyclist can ride up a to the size of the Earth.) Assume it does not
ramp, fly through the air, and land on another lose any mass between now and then. (Don’t
ramp. Why would it be useful for the rider to be fooled by the photo, which makes it look
speed up or slow down the back wheel while in like nearly all of the star was thrown off by the
the air? explosion. The visually prominent gas cloud
is actually thinner than the best laboratory
9-a2 The earth moves about the sun in an vacuum ever produced on earth. Certainly a
elliptical orbit where angular momentum about little bit of mass is actually lost, but it is not at
the sun is conserved. Earth’s distance from the all unreasonable to make an approximation of
sun ranges from 0.983 AU (at perihelion, the zero loss of mass as we are doing.)
closest point) to 1.017 AU (at aphelion, the far- (b) What will its angular momentum be?
thest point). The AU is a unit of distance. If the (c) How long will it take to turn once on its √
orbital speed of Earth at aphelion is v, what is axis?
the orbital speed of Earth at perihelion?

9-a3 (a) Alice says Cathy’s body has zero

momentum, but Bob says Cathy’s momentum is
nonzero. Nobody is lying or making a mistake.
How is this possible? Give a concrete example.
(b) Alice and Bob agree that Dong’s body has
nonzero momentum, but disagree about Dong’s
angular momentum, which Alice says is zero, and
Bob says is nonzero. Explain.

9-a4 Two objects have the same momentum

vector. Assume that they are not spinning; they
only have angular momentum due to their mo-
tion through space. Can you conclude that their
angular momenta are the same? Explain. [Based
Problem 9-d1.
on a problem by Serway and Faughn.]

9-a5 Find the angular momentum of a parti- 9-d2 Give a numerical comparison of the two
cle whose position is r = 3x̂ − ŷ + ẑ (in meters) molecules’ moments of inertia for rotation in the
and whose momentum is p = −2x̂ + ŷ + ẑ (in plane of the page about their centers of mass.
√
kg·m/s). √

9-d1 The sun turns on its axis once every 9-d3 A baseball pitcher can throw a curveball
26.0 days. Its mass is 2.0 × 1030 kg and its toward home plate at 138 km/hr with a spin of
radius is 7.0 × 108 m. Assume it is a rigid sphere 2500 r.p.m. What percentage of the total KE
of uniform density. √ of the baseball is in rotational kinetic energy?
(a) What is the sun’s angular momentum? Treat the 145-gram baseball as a uniform sphere
In a few billion years, astrophysicists predict of radius 3.7 cm. √
that the sun will use up all its sources of nuclear
energy, and will collapse into a ball of exotic,
PROBLEMS 109

9-d4 A merry-go-round consists of a uniform of the system, assuming there is no external

√
disc of mass M . It spins around at N revolu- frictional torque during the flip?
tions per minute. Mary, who also has mass M ,
is thinking about jumping on.
(a) What is the initial angular velocity of the √ 9-d7 Show that a sphere of radius R that is
merry-go-round (in terms of N alone)? rolling without slipping has angular momentum
(b) Suppose Mary jumps on the merry-go-round and momentum in the ratio L/p = (2/5)R.
at the edge with negligible initial velocity. How
many revolutions per minute does the merry-go- √ 9-d8 A dumbbell consists of two solid, spheri-
round make? cal masses (each of mass M ) attached to the two
(c) Suppose that, instead of jumping on the edge ends of a bar, also of mass M . The length of the
with no initial velocity, Mary wants to jump bar is L.
onto the edge (tangent to the disc) such that the (a) Find the moment of inertia of the mass distri-
merry-go-round is at rest right after jumping on. bution about an axis through the center of mass
Express your answer in terms of the radius of and perpendicular to the bar, assuming the balls√
the merry-go-round, R, and the initial angular are pointlike.
velocity of the merry-go-round, ω. √ (b) Now find the moment of inertia assuming the
spherical masses have radius r. You will need to
9-d5 A circular, solid disc of radius R and use the parallel-axis theorem for this. To sim-
mass 2M is rotating with angular velocity ω. A plify the math and make it easier to compare
second disc of radius R and mass M is dropped the answers to parts a and b, take the densities
onto the rotating disc, and the two slide against to add in the places where the bar’s volume over-
√
each other until they reach the same final angu- laps with the volume of a ball.
lar velocity. (c) Let r = L/5. By what percentage is your
(a) What is the final angular velocity of the √ result from part a off from that in part b? Give
discs? your answer to two significant figures. √
(b) What percentage of the initial KE was lost
during the collision? √

9-d6 In a physics lecture, a student holds

a bicycle wheel of moment of inertia I while
sitting on a stool that can spin. With her feet
on the ground so as not to move, she starts the
wheel spinning with angular velocity ω in the Problem 9-d8.
counterclockwise direction when looking down
from above, so that the angular velocity vector
points towards the ceiling. She then picks up 9-d9 A solid sphere of weight W rolls with-
her feet and turns the wheel over so that the out slipping up an incline at an angle of θ (with
rotation is reversed. This causes her to start respect to the horizontal). At the bottom of the
rotating about the stool’s axis of rotation. In the incline the center of mass of the sphere has trans-
following, take angular momenta to be positive lational speed v. How far along the ramp does
if pointing vertically upwards and negative if the sphere travel before coming to rest (not ver-
pointing vertically downwards. tical height, but distance along the ramp)? √
(a) What is the final (spin) angular momentum √
of the bicycle wheel? 9-d10 A sphere of mass M and radius R is
(b) What is the final angular momentum of rest not necessarily solid or hollow. It has moment of
110 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

inertia I = cM R2 . As shown in the figure, the

sphere starts from rest and rolls without slipping
down a ramp from height H. It then moves back
up the other side, but now with no friction at all
between the sphere and the ramp. What height
does the sphere reach? √

Problem 9-d12.

. Solution, p. 236
Problem 9-d10. 9-d14 A bug stands at the right end of a
rod of length `, which is initially at rest in a
horizontal position. The rod rests on a fulcrum
9-d11 You race a hoop, a solid sphere, and which is at a distance b to the left of the rod’s
a solid cylinder down an incline of angle θ with center, so that when the rod is released from rest,
respect to the horizontal. Each object rolls with- the bug’s end will drop. For what value of b
out slipping. will the bug experience apparent weightlessness
(a) What is the linear acceleration of the center
√ at the moment when the rod is released?
√
of mass of the hoop? √
(b) The solid sphere?
(c) The solid cylinder?Note this problem is easier
if you don’t do each part separately, but rather
say that I = cM R2 , and plug in different values
of c at the very end of the calculation. √

9-d12 The figure shows a tabletop experi-

ment that can be used to determine an unknown
moment of inertia. A rotating platform of radius
R has a string wrapped around it. The string is
threaded over a pulley and down to a hanging Problem 9-d14.
weight of mass m. The mass is released from
rest, and its downward acceleration a (a > 0) is
measured. Find the total moment of inertia I of 9-d15 The figure shows a trap door of length
`, which is released at rest from a horizontal posi-
the platform plus the object sitting on top of it.
(The moment of inertia of the object itself can tion and swings downward under its own weight.
then be found by subtracting the value for the The bug stands at a distance b from the hinge.
empty platform.) √
Because the bug feels the floor dropping out from
under it with some acceleration, it feels a change
9-d13 Show that when a thin, uniform ring in the apparent acceleration of gravity from g to
rotates about a diameter, the moment of inertia some value ga , at the moment when the door is
is half as big as for rotation about the axis of released. Find ga . √
symmetry.
PROBLEMS 111

ical. To estimate its size, use the fact that a neu-

tron or proton has a volume of about 1 fm3 (one
cubic femtometer, where 1 fm = 10−15 m), and
assume they are closely packed in the nucleus.

9-e2 When we talk about rigid-body rota-

tion, the concept of a perfectly rigid body can
Problem 9-d15. only be an idealization. In reality, any object
will compress, expand, or deform to some ex-
tent when subjected to the strain of rotation.
9-e1 The nucleus 168 Er (erbium-168) contains However, if we let it settle down for a while,
68 protons (which is what makes it a nucleus of perhaps it will reach a new equilibrium. As an
the element erbium) and 100 neutrons. It has example, suppose we fill a centrifuge tube with
an ellipsoidal shape like an American football, some compressible substance like shaving cream
with one long axis and two short axes that are of or Wonder Bread. We can model the contents
equal diameter. Because this is a subatomic sys- of the tube as a one-dimensional line of mass,
tem, consisting of only 168 particles, its behav- extending from r = 0 to r = `. Once the ro-
ior shows some clear quantum-mechanical prop- tation starts, we expect that the contents will
erties. It can only have certain energy lev- be most compressed near the “floor” of the tube
els, and it makes quantum leaps between these at r = `; this is both because the inward force
levels. Also, its angular momentum can only required for circular motion increases with r for
have certain values, which are all multiples of a fixed ω, and because the part at the floor has
2.109 × 10−34 kg · m2 /s. The table shows some the greatest amount of material pressing “down”
of the observed angular momenta and energies of (actually outward) on it. The linear density
168
Er, in SI units (kg · m2 /s and joules). dm/ dr, in units of kg/m, should therefore in-
L × 1034 E × 1014 crease as a function of r. Suppose that we have
0 0 dm/ dr = µer/` , where µ is a constant. Find the
2.109 1.2786 moment of inertia. √
4.218 4.2311
6.327 8.7919 9-e3 (a) As suggested in the figure, find the
8.437 14.8731 area of the infinitesimal region expressed in po-
10.546 22.3798 lar coordinates as lying between r and r +dr and √
12.655 31.135 between θ and θ + dθ.
14.764 41.206 (b) Generalize this to find the infinitesimal
16.873 52.223 element of volume in cylindrical coordinates
(a) These data can be described to a good ap- (r, θ, z), where the Cartesian z axis is perpendic-
√
proximation as a rigid end-over-end rotation. Es- ular to the directions measured by r and θ.
timate a single best-fit value for the moment of (c) Find the moment of inertia for rotation about
inertia from the data, and check how well the its axis of a cone whose mass is M , whose height
data agree with the assumption of rigid-body is h, and whose base has a radius b. √
√
rotation.
(b) Check whether this moment of inertia is on 9-e4 Find the moment of inertia of a solid
the right order of magnitude. The moment of in- rectangular box of mass M and uniform density,
ertia depends on both the size and the shape of whose sides are of length a, b, and c, for rotation
the nucleus. For the sake of this rough check, ig- about an axis through its center parallel to the
nore the fact that the nucleus is not quite spher- edges of length a.
112 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

√
two equations exists and is unique.
9-e5 (a) Prove the identity a × (b × c) = b(a · Remark: This is one motivation for constructing the
c) − c(a · b) by expanding the product in terms number system called the quaternions. For a certain pe-
of its components. Note that because the x, y, riod around 1900, quaternions were more popular than
the system of vectors and scalars more commonly used
and z components are treated symmetrically in
today. They still have some important advantages over
the definitions of the vector cross product, it is the scalar-vector system for certain applications, such as
only necessary to carry out the proof for the x avoiding a phenomenon known as gimbal lock in control-
component of the result. ling the orientation of bodies such as spacecraft.
?
(b) Applying this to the angular R momentum of
a rigidly rotating body, L = r × (ω × r) dm, 9-g1 The figure shows scale drawing of a pair
show that the diagonal elements of the moment of pliers being used to crack a nut, with an ap-
propriately reduced centimeter grid. Warning:
Rof inertia tensor can be expressed as, e.g., Ixx =
(y 2 + z 2 ) dm. do not attempt this at home; it is bad manners.
(c) Find the diagonal elements of the moment of If the force required to crack the nut is 300 N,
inertia matrix of an ellipsoid with axes of lengths estimate the force required of the person’s hand.
a, b, and c, in the principal-axis frame, and with . Solution, p. 236
the axis at the center. √

9-e6 Let two sides of a triangle be given by

the vectors A and B, with their tails at the ori-
gin, and let mass m be uniformly distributed on
the interior of the triangle. (a) Show that the dis-
tance of the triangle’s center of mass from the in-
tersection of sides A and B is given by 31 |A + B|.
(b) Consider the quadrilateral with mass 2m,
and vertices at the origin, A, B, and A + B.
Show that its moment of inertia, for rotation
about an axis perpendicular to it and passing
through its center of mass, is m 2 2
6 (A + B ).
(c) Show that the moment of inertia for rotation Problem 9-g1.
about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the
original triangle, and passing through its center
m
of mass, is 18 (A2 + B 2 − A · B). Hint: Combine 9-g2 Make a rough estimate of the mechanical
the results of parts a and b with the result of advantage of the lever shown in the figure. In
problem ??. other words, for a given amount of force applied
on the handle, how many times greater is the
9-e7 In this problem we investigate the resulting force on the cork?
notion of division by a vector.
(a) Given a nonzero vector a and a scalar b, 9-g3 An object is observed to have constant
suppose we wish to find a vector u that is the angular momentum. Can you conclude that no
solution of a · u = b. Show that the solution is torques are acting on it? Explain. [Based on a
not unique, and give a geometrical description problem by Serway and Faughn.]
of the solution set.
(b) Do the same thing for the equation a×u = c. 9-g4 You are trying to loosen a stuck bolt on
(c) Show that the simultaneous solution of these your RV using a big wrench that is 50 cm long.
PROBLEMS 113

work done by the torque during the first revolu-

tion is W . What is the work done by the torque
during the second revolution? √

9-g8 A physical therapist wants her patient

to rehabilitate his injured elbow by laying his
arm flat on a table, and then lifting a 2.1 kg
mass by bending his elbow. In this situation,
the weight is 33 cm from his elbow. He calls her
back, complaining that it hurts him to grasp the
weight. He asks if he can strap a bigger weight
onto his arm, only 17 cm from his elbow. How
Problem 9-g2. much mass should she tell him to use so that he
will be exerting the same torque? (He is raising
his forearm itself, as well as the weight.) √
If you hang from the wrench, and your mass is 55
kg, what is the maximum torque you can exert 9-g9 Two horizontal tree branches on the
on the bolt? √
same tree have equal diameters, but one branch
is twice as long as the other. Give a quantitative
9-g5 A bicycle wheel with moment of inertia comparison of the torques where the branches
0.15 kg·m2 takes 30 seconds to come to rest from join the trunk. [Thanks to Bong Kang.]
an initial angular velocity of 90 r.p.m. What is
the magnitude of the average frictional torque 9-g10 Penguins are playful animals. Tux the
over this deceleration? Penguin invents a new game using a natural cir-
cular depression in the ice. He waddles at top
9-g6 The graph shows the torque on a rigid speed toward the crater, aiming off to the side,
body as a function of time. The body is at rest and then hops into the air and lands on his belly
at t = 2 s. Later, at t = 5 s, it is spinning at just inside its lip. He then belly-surfs, moving
angular velocity 90 s−1 . in a circle around the rim. The ice is friction-
(a) What is the moment of inertia of the body?√ less, so his speed is constant. Is Tux’s angular
momentum zero, or nonzero? What about the
(b) What is its angular velocity at t = 7 s? √ total torque acting on him? Take the center of
the crater to be the axis. Explain your answers.

9-j1 A massless rod of length ` has weights,

each of mass m, attached to its ends. The rod
is initially put in a horizontal position, and laid
on an off-center fulcrum located at a distance b
from the rod’s center. The rod will topple. (a)
Calculate the total gravitational torque on the
Problem 9-g6. rod directly, by adding the two torques. (b) Ver-
ify that this gives the same result as would have
been obtained by taking the entire gravitational
9-g7 A disk starts from rest and rotates about force as acting at the center of mass.
a fixed axis, subject to a constant torque. The
114 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

9-j2 A solid rectangular door of moment of component tangential to the book’s motion, be-
inertia I is initially open and at rest when a piece cause the book spirals in toward the hole. This
of sticky clay of mass m and velocity v0 strikes is why the answer to part b is nonzero.)
the door perpendicularly at a distance d from the
axis of the hinges.
(a) Find the angular speed of the door just after √
the sticky collision.
(b) What fraction of the initial KE was lost dur- √
ing the sticky collision?
(c) Suppose the door comes to rest after rotating
∆θ > 0 because of a constant frictional torque.
What is the value of this frictional torque? √

9-j3 A ball is connected by a string to a ver-

tical post. The ball is set in horizontal motion Problem 9-j4.
so that it starts winding the string around the
post. Assume that the motion is confined to a
horizontal plane, i.e., ignore gravity. Michelle 9-j5 Suppose a bowling ball is initially thrown
and Astrid are trying to predict the final veloc- so that it has no angular momentum at all, i.e., it
ity of the ball when it reaches the post. Michelle is initially just sliding down the lane. Eventually
says that according to conservation of angular kinetic friction will get it spinning fast enough so
momentum, the ball has to speed up as it ap- that it is rolling without slipping. Show that the
proaches the post. Astrid says that according final velocity of the ball equals 5/7 of its initial
to conservation of energy, the ball has to keep velocity. [Hint: You’ll need the result of problem
a constant speed. Who is right? [Hint: How is 9-d7.]
this different from the case where you whirl a
rock in a circle on a string and gradually reel in
9-j6 A yo-yo of total mass m consists of two
the string?]
solid cylinders of radius R, connected by a small
spindle of negligible mass and radius r. The top
9-j4 A book is spinning around a circle of of the string is held motionless while the string
radius R on top of a flat tabletop. The speed unrolls from the spindle. Show that the accel-
of the book is initially v0 . The inward force is eration of the yo-yo is g/(1 + R2 /2r2 ). [Hint:
provided by a string attached to the book, going The acceleration and the tension in the string
through a hole at the center of the circle (r = 0), are unknown. Use τ = ∆L/∆t and F = ma to
and passing underneath to a person holding the determine these two unknowns.]
string. The person pulls on the string so that
the book spirals inward, eventually cutting the
radius of the circular motion in half. 9-m1 Block A (of mass MA ) rests on a fric-
(a) What is the speed of the book at r = R/2?√ tionless horizontal table. It is connected via a
light string to block B (of mass MB ) hanging
(b) How much work is done by the person pulling over the edge of the table. The pulley itself,
on the string as the book moves from r = R to a solid disc, has non-negligible mass MC . The
√ light string does not slip over the pulley. What
r = R/2?
(The string’s force exerts no torque on the book, is the magnitude of the linear acceleration of the
since it is always in the direction towards the system?
hole. The force, however, can have a non-zero
PROBLEMS 115

Problem 9-m1.

9-m2 A rod of length b and mass m stands

upright. We want to strike the rod at the bot- Problem 9-p2.
tom, causing it to fall and land flat.
(a) Find the momentum, p, that should be deliv-
ered, in terms of m, b, and g. [Hint: the solution√ force, F , from the finger, in terms of m, b, L, and
√
is nearly determined by units.] g.
(b) Can this really be done without having the (b) Comment on the cases b = L and b = L/2.
rod scrape on the floor? (c) Are any values of b unphysical?
?
9-m3 (a) Find the moment of inertia of a uni-
form square of mass m and with sides of length
b, for rotation in its own plane, about one of its√
corners.
(b) The square is balanced on one corner on a
frictionless surface. An infinitesimal perturba-
tion causes it to topple. Find its angular velocity
at the moment when its side slaps the surface.
√
?
9-p1 An object thrown straight up in the air
is momentarily at rest when it reaches the top of
its motion. Does that mean that it is in equilib-
rium at that point? Explain.

9-p2 A person of weight W stands on the ball

of one foot. Find the tension in the calf muscle
Problem 9-p3.
and the force exerted by the shinbones on the
bones of the foot, in terms of W, a, and b. For
simplicity, assume that all the forces are at 90-
9-p4 Two atoms will interact through elec-
degree angles to the foot, i.e., neglect the angle
trical forces between their protons and electrons.
between the foot and the floor. √ One fairly good approximation to the electrical
energy is the Lennard-Jones formula,
9-p3 The rod in the figure is supported by
a 6
the finger and the string. a 12
(a) Find the tension, T , in the string, and the U (r) = k −2 ,
r r
116 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

where r is the center-to-center distance between

the atoms and k is a positive constant. Show
that (a) there is an equilibrium point at r = a,
(b) the equilibrium is stable, and
(c) the energy required to bring the atoms from
their equilibrium separation to infinity is k.

9-s1 (a) Find the minimum horizontal force

which, applied at the axle, will pull a wheel Problem 9-s2.
over a step. Invent algebra symbols for what-
ever quantities you find to be relevant, and give
√
your answer in symbolic form. [Hints: There are cable in terms of the angle θ.
four forces on the wheel at first, but only three (b) Interpreting your answer to part a, what
when it lifts off. Normal forces are always per- would be the best angle to use if we wanted to
pendicular to the surface of contact. Note that minimize the strain on the cable?
the corner of the step cannot be perfectly sharp, (c) Again interpreting your answer to part a, for
so the surface of contact for this force really co- what angles does the result misbehave mathe-
incides with the surface of the wheel.] matically? Interpet this physically.
(b) Under what circumstances does your result ?
become infinite? Give a physical interpretation.

Problem 9-s3.
Problem 9-s1.

9-s4 A block of mass m (uniformly dis-

9-s2 A uniform bar of mass M and length tributed) and dimensions 2L × L is prevented
L is held up by a vertical rope attached to the from toppling over by a rope, making the same
ceiling, as shown. √ angle with respect to the horizontal as the long
(a) What is the tension in the rope? end of the block. (θ < arctan(2) ≈ 63.4◦ , which
(b) What is the normal force provided by the √ is another way of saying that the block’s center
ground on the bar? of mass lies to the right of the point of contact
(c) What is the static frictional force provided with the ground.) (a) What is the tension in the
√
by the ground on the bar? √ rope?
(b) What is the normal force provided by the √
9-s3 (a) The bar of mass m is attached at the ground?
wall with a hinge, and is supported on the right (c) What is the minimum coefficient of friction
by a massless cable. Find the tension, T , in the required for this configuration to be in static
PROBLEMS 117

equilibrium? Evaluate your expression for θ = respect to the horizontal. In addition, a weight
30◦ . √
W is hung from the bar at a distance x away
? from the hinge. Take the +x direction to the
right, and +y vertically upwards. √
(a) What is the tension in the rope?
(b) What is the x component of the force from √
the hinge on the bar?
(c) What is the y component of the force from
the hinge on the bar? √

Problem 9-s4.

9-s5 A meter-stick balances on a fulcrum

placed at the 50.0 cm mark only when a 4.0 g
weight is placed at the 80.0 cm mark. Without
the weight, the fulcrum needs to be placed at the
48.0 cm mark to balance the stick. What is the
mass of the meter-stick?

9-s6 Julia, whose mass is 2M , is walking

across a uniform bar of mass M and length L,
as shown. The bar is supported by scales at its
left and right ends. The readings on the scales
are N1 and N2 , respectively.
(a) What is the maximum distance x from the
left end of the bar that she can reach so that N√2 Problem 9-s7.
does not exceed M g?
(b) What is the reading N1 when she reaches this
maximum distance? √ 9-s8 A stoplight consists of three pieces of
mass M : a thin, vertical bar mounted at the
center of a base of width w, a horizontal bar of
length D, and the stoplight fixture itself. (The
two bars have a uniform mass distribution.) The
structure is screwed to the ground at the base.
For simplicity, we take there to be only two
screws, one on the left and one on the right side
of the base, which has width w < (D/2). Assume
that the entire normal force from the ground acts
Problem 9-s6. on the right-hand side of the base. (This is where
the structure would naturally pivot.)
(a) By taking the right side of the base as your
9-s7 A bar of mass m and length L is sup- pivot point, you should be able to easily see that
ported by a hinge on one end and by a rope on the screw on the left must provide a downwards
the other end. The rope makes an angle θ with force to keep the stoplight in static equilibrium.
118 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

√ √
What is the magnitude of this force? ?
(b) Find the upward normal force acting on the
base. √

Problem 9-v1.

9-v2 A person of mass M is climbing a lad-

der of length L and negligible mass, propped up
Problem 9-s8. against a wall making an angle θ with respect
to the horizontal. There is no friction between
the ladder and the wall, but there is a coefficient
9-s9 A uniform ladder of mass m and length of static friction µs between the ladder and the
L leans against a smooth wall, making an angle ground. What is the maximum distance along
θ with respect to the ground. The dirt exerts a the ladder that the person can reach before the
normal force and a frictional force on the ladder, ladder starts to slide?
producing a force vector with magnitude F1 at ?
an angle φ with respect to the ground. Since the
wall is smooth, it exerts only a normal force on
the ladder; let its magnitude be F2 .
(a) Explain why φ must be greater than θ. No
math is needed.
(b) Choose any numerical values you like for m
and L, and show that the ladder can be in equi-
librium (zero torque and zero total force vector)
for θ = 45.00◦ and φ = 63.43◦ .

9-v1 Continuing problem 9-s9, find an equa-

tion for φ in terms of θ, and show that m and
L do not enter into the equation. Do not as-
sume any numerical values for any of the vari-
ables. You will need the trig identity sin(a−b) = Problem 9-v2.
sin a cos b − sin b cos a. (As a numerical check on
your result, you may wish to check that the an-
gles given in part b of the previous problem sat- 9-v3 You wish to determine the mass of a
isfy your equation.) ship in a bottle without taking it out. Show that
PROBLEMS 119

this can be done with the setup shown in the by the two massless cables. Find the angle α in
figure, with a scale supporting the bottle at one terms of the angle β, and show that the result is
end, provided that it is possible to take readings a purely geometric one, independent of the other√
with the ship slid to several different locations. variables involved.
Note that you can’t determine the position of (b) Using your answer to part a, sketch the con-
the ship’s center of mass just by looking at it, figurations for β → 0, β = 45◦ , and β = 90◦ . Do
and likewise for the bottle. In particular, you your results make sense intuitively?
can’t just say, “position the ship right on top of ?
the fulcrum” or “position it right on top of the
balance.”
?

Problem 9-v3.

9-v4 The box shown in the figure is being ac- Problem 9-v5.
celerated by pulling on it with the rope.
(a) Assume the floor is frictionless. What is
9-v6 Two bars of length L are connected with
the maximum force that can be applied with- √ a hinge and placed on a frictionless cylinder of
out causing the box to tip over?
radius r. (a) Show that the angle θ shown in the
(b) Repeat part a, but now let the coefficient of
√ figure is related to the unitless ratio r/L by the
friction be µ.
equation
(c) What happens to your answer to part b when
r cos2 θ
the box is sufficiently tall? How do you interpret = .
this? L 2 tan θ
?
(b) Discuss the physical behavior of this equation
for very large and very small values of r/L.
?

Problem 9-v4.

Problem 9-v6.
9-v5 (a) The two identical rods are attached
to one another with a hinge, and are supported
120 CHAPTER 9. CONSERVATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM

9-v7 We have n identical books of width w,

and we wish to stack them at the edge of a ta-
ble so that they extend the maximum possible
distance Ln beyond the edge. Surprisingly, it is
possible to have values of Ln that are greater
than w, even with fairly small n. For large n,
however, Ln begins to grow very slowly. Our
goal is to find Ln for a given n. We adopt the
restriction that only one book is ever used at a
given height.1 (a) Use proof by induction to find
Ln , expressing your result as a sum. (b) Find a
sufficiently tight lower bound on this sum, as a
closed-form expression, to prove that 1,202,604
books suffice for L > 7w.
?
9-v8 The uniform cube has unit weight and
sides of unit length. One corner is attached to
a universal joint, i.e., a frictionless bearing that
allows any type of rotation. If the cube is in
equilibrium, find the magnitudes of the forces a,
b, and c. √

Problem 9-v8.

1 When this restriction is lifted, the calculation of L

n
becomes a much more difficult problem, which was par-
tially solved in 2009 by Paterson, Peres, Thorup, Winkler,
and Zwick.
10 Fluids
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems If the forces are to cancel, then this force must be
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although the same on all sides on an object such as a cube,
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- so it follows that pressure has no direction: it is
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is a scalar. The SI units of pressure are newtons
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to per square meter, which can be abbreviated as
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- pascals, 1 Pa = 1 N/m2 . The pressure of the
pose of the summary is to show what material is earth’s atmosphere at sea level is about 100 kPa.
needed in order to do the problems, and to show Only pressure differences are ordinarily of any
what terminology and notation are being used. importance. For example, your ears hurt when
you fly in an airplane because there is a pressure
difference between your inner ear and the cabin;
10.1 Statics once the pressures are equalized, the pain stops.

Fluids Variation of pressure with depth

In physics, the term fluid is used to mean either If a fluid is subjected to a gravitational field and
a gas or a liquid. The important feature of a fluid is in equilibrium, then the pressure can only de-
can be demonstrated by comparing with a cube pend on depth (figure 10.1).
of jello on a plate. The jello is a solid. If you
shake the plate from side to side, the jello will
respond by shearing, i.e., by slanting its sides,
but it will tend to spring back into its original
shape. A solid can sustain shear forces, but a
fluid cannot. A fluid does not resist a change in
shape unless it involves a change in volume.

Pressure
We begin by restricting ourselves to the case of Figure 10.1: The pressure is the same at all the
fluid statics, in which the fluid is at rest and in points marked with dots.
equilibrium. A small chunk or “parcel” of the
To find the variation with depth, we consider
fluid has forces acting on it from the adjacent
the vertical forces acting on a tiny, cubical parcel
portions of the fluid. We have assumed that the
of the fluid having infinitesimal height dy, where
parcel is in equilibrium, and if no external forces
positive y is up. By requiring equilibrium, we
are present then these forces must cancel. By
find that the difference in pressure between the
the definition of a fluid these forces are perpen-
top and bottom is dP = −ρg dy. A more elegant
dicular to any part of the imaginary boundary
way of writing this is in terms of a dot product,
surrounding the parcel. Since force is an additive
quantity, the force the fluid exerts on any surface dP = ρg · dy (10.2)
must be proportional to the surface’s area. We which automatically takes care of the plus or mi-
therefore define the pressure to be the (perpen- nus sign, and avoids any requirements about the
dicular) force per unit area, coordinate system. By integrating this equation,
F⊥ we can find the change in pressure ∆P corre-
P = . (10.1) sponding to any change in depth ∆y.
A

121
122 CHAPTER 10. FLUIDS

Archimedes’ principle
A helium balloon or a submarine experiences un-
equal pressure above and below, due to the vari-
ation of pressure with depth. The total force
of the surrounding fluid does not vanish, and is
called the buoyant force. In a fluid in equilib-
rium that does not contain any foreign object,
any parcel of fluid evidently has its weight can-
celed out by the buoyant force on it. This buoy-
ant force is unchanged if another object is substi-
tuted for the parcel of fluid, so the buoyant force
on a submerged object is upward and equal to
the weight of the displaced fluid. This is called
Archimedes’ principle.

10.2 Dynamics
Continuity
We now turn to fluid dynamics, eliminating the
restriction to cases in which the fluid is at rest
and in equilibrium. Mass is conserved, and this Figure 10.2: Due to conservation of mass, the
constrains the ways in which a fluid can flow. stream of water narrows.
For example, it is not possible to have a piece of
pipe with water flowing out of it at each end in- then its kinetic energy changes. If it rises or falls,
definitely. The principle of continuity states that its potential energy changes as well. If there is
when a fluid flows steadily (so that the velocity a net change in KE + P E, then this must be
at any given point is constant over time), mass accomplished through forces from the surround-
enters and leaves a region of space at equal rates. ing fluid. For example, if water is to move uphill
Liquids are highly incompressible, so that it is at constant speed, then there must be a pres-
often a good approximation to assume that the sure difference, such as one produced by a pump.
density is the same everywhere. In the case of Based on these considerations, one can show that
incompressible flow, we can frequently relate the along a streamline of the flow,
rate of steady flow to the cross-sectional area,
as in figure 10.2. Because the water is incom- 1
ρgy + ρv 2 + P = constant, (10.3)
pressible, the rate at which mass flows through a 2
perpendicular cross-section depends only on the
which is Bernoulli’s principle.
product of the velocity and the cross-sectional
area. Therefore as the water falls and acceler-
ates, the cross-sectional area goes down.

Bernoulli’s equation
Consider a parcel of fluid as it flows from one
place to another. If it accelerates or decelerates,
PROBLEMS 123

Problems outside the straw (atmospheric pressure) is equal

to the pressure at the same height inside the
10-a1 The pressure at 11,000 meters (where straw. Inside the straw, there are two contri-
most commercial airliners fly) is about a quarter butions: the air pressure inside the straw plus
of atmospheric pressure at sea level. Suppose the column of water above this height.
you’re a passenger on a plane, flying at such an (a) Suppose you find that you can only suck wa-
altitude but with the cabin pressurized to 1 atm, ter up to a height of 1.0 m. What is the minimum√
and you notice a gremlin on the wing. Suppose pressure inside the straw?
that the window near your seat isn’t screwed in (b) Superman, strong as he is, can suck out all
and is held in place only by the difference in pres- the air from a (strong-walled) straw. What is the
sure. What force would the gremlin need to exert tallest straw through which Superman can drink
on your 40 cm × 50 cm window in order to get water out of a lake? √
in? √
10-d2 The first transatlantic telegraph cable
10-a2 The figure shows a schematic diagram was built in 1858, lying at a depth of up to 3.2
of a car on a hydraulic lift. The small piston has km. What is the pressure at this depth, in at-
diameter d and the large one D. Any difference mospheres?
in height between the two sides is not enough to
create a significant difference in pressure due to 10-d3 One way to measure the density of an
gravity. unknown liquid is by using it as a barometer.
(a) If we would like to lift a car of mass M , what
√ Suppose you have a column of length L of the
force is required at the piston end? unknown liquid (inside a vacuum tube), which
(b) If we would like to lift the car by a distance provides the same pressure as atmospheric pres-
L, how far does the piston need to move? As- sure P0 .
sume that the fluid is incompressible, so that its
√ (a) What is the density of the unknown liquid?√
volume is conserved.
(c) By considering the work done in lifting the (b) Mercury barometers have L = 760 mm at
car, verify that your answers to part a and b are standard atmospheric pressure P0 = 1.013 ×
consistent with conservation of energy. 105 Pa. Given these data, what is the density
of mercury to three significant figures? √

10-d4 A U-shaped tube, with both ends ex-

posed to the atmosphere, has two immiscible liq-
uids in it: water, and some unknown liquid. The
unknown liquid sits on top of the water on the
right side of the tube in a column of height H.
Also, the water extends a height h above the
unknown-water interface. If the density of water
is ρw , what is the density of the unknown liquid?
√
Problem 10-a2.

10-d5 Typically the atmosphere gets colder

10-d1 A drinking straw works because, when with increasing altitude. However, sometimes
you suck air out of the straw, there is decreased there is an inversion layer, in which this trend is
pressure. The equilibrium water level inside the reversed, e.g., because a less dense mass of warm
straw is such that the pressure at the water level air moves into a certain area, and rises above the
124 CHAPTER 10. FLUIDS

(b) Find the density of the sphere in terms of the

relevant variables. √

10-g2 Suppose we want to send a space probe

to Venus and have it release a balloon that can
float over the landscape and collect data. The
venerian atmosphere is hot and corrosive, so it
would destroy the kind of mylar or rubber bal-
Problem 10-d4. loon we use on earth. The purpose of this prob-
lem is to get a feel for things by estimating
whether an aluminum beer can full of helium
denser colder air that was already present. Sup- would float on Venus. Here are some data:
pose that this causes the pressure P as a func- density of atmosphere 67 kg/m3
tion of height y to be given by a function of the density of helium 6.0 kg/m3
form P = Po e−ky (1 + by), where constant tem- mass of beer can 15 g
perature would give b = 0 and an inversion layer volume of beer can 330 cm3
would give b > 0. (a) Infer the units of the con- Find the ratio FB /Fg of the buoyant force to √
stants Po , k, and b. (b) Find the density of the the can’s weight. Does it float?
air as a function of y, of the constants, and of
the acceleration of gravity g. (c) Check that the
units of your answer to part b make sense. 10-g3 Aluminum and lead have densities
. Solution, p. 237 2.8ρw and 11.3ρw , respectively, where ρw is the
10-d6 Estimate the pressure at the center density of water. If the maximum mass of the
of the Earth, assuming it is of constant density lead that you can lift while underwater is M ,
throughout. Note that g is not constant with what is the maximum for aluminum? √
respect to depth — as shown in example ?? on
page ??, g equals Gmr/b3 for r, the distance 10-g4 A block of wood is floating in water. It
from the center, less than b, the earth’s radius.√ has density kρw , where ρw is the density of water.
(a) State your result in terms of G, m, and b. When you apply a downward force of magnitude
(b) Show that your answer from part a has the F , the block becomes fully submerged. What is
right units for pressure. √ the mass of the block? √
(c) Evaluate the result numerically.
(d) Given that the earth’s atmosphere is on the
order of one thousandth the earth’s radius, and 10-g5 Gina has a mass of 62 kg.
that the density of the earth is several thousand (a) Estimate her volume, assuming that her den-√
times greater than the density of the lower atmo- sity is the same as that of water.
sphere, check that your result is of a reasonable (b) Gina is in air, which has density 1.2 kg/m3√.
order of magnitude. What is the buoyant force on her?
(c) Without the air pushing up slightly, she
10-g1 A uniform, solid sphere floats in a liq- would weigh more on a standard scale. How
uid of known density. We measure its draft, i.e., much more would the scale claim her mass was?√
the depth to which it is submerged. From this
measurement, we want to find the density of the 10-g6 An object of mass m has an appar-
sphere. ent weight (3/5)mg when submerged in water,
(a) Based on units, infer as much as possible which has density ρw . If the object is placed
about the form of the result. in bromine, which has density 3.1ρw , it floats.
PROBLEMS 125

What fraction of the object is submerged in

bromine? √

10-k1 A river with a certain width and depth

splits into two parts, each of which has the same
width and depth as the original river. What can
you say about the speed of the current after the
split?

Problem 10-k1.

10-k2 At one cross-section of the Mississippi

River, the width is 150 m, the depth is 12 m, and
the speed of the water flowing is 1.2 m/s.
(a) What is the rate of flow of the Mississippi
River at this location, measured as volume per √
unit time?
(b) What is the corresponding rate of flow of √
mass?
Problem 10-k3.
(c) If the river narrows to 140 m with a depth of
20 m, what is the new speed of the water? √

10-k3 The firehose shown in the figure has

radius a, and water flows through it at speed u.
The conical nozzle narrows the radius down to b.
Find the speed v at which the water leaves the
nozzle. √

10-k4 A pipe of slow-moving water is basi-

cally at atmospheric pressure, P0 . As the pipe
narrows (without changing height), the water
speeds up, and the pressure decreases. How fast
would the water need to move in order for the
pressure in the pipe to be 0.75P0 ? √
126 CHAPTER 10. FLUIDS
11 Gravity
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems 11.2 Newton’s law of gravity
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- Kepler’s laws were a beautifully simple expla-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is nation of what the planets did, but they didn’t
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to address why they moved as they did. Once New-
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- ton had formulated his laws of motion and taught
pose of the summary is to show what material is them to some of his friends, they began trying
needed in order to do the problems, and to show to connect them to Kepler’s laws. It was clear
what terminology and notation are being used. now that an inward force would be needed to
bend the planets’ paths. Since the outer planets
were moving slowly along more gently curving
11.1 Kepler’s laws paths than the inner planets, their accelerations
were apparently less. This could be explained if
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) studied newly the sun’s force was determined by distance, be-
available high-precision data on the motion of coming weaker for the farther planets. In the
the planets, and discovered the following three approximation of a circular orbit, it is not diffi-
empirical laws: cult to show that Kepler’s law of periods requires
Kepler’s elliptical orbit law: The planets orbit that this weakening with distance vary accord-
the sun in elliptical orbits with the sun at one ing to F ∝ 1/r2 . We know that objects near
focus. the earth’s surface feel a gravitational force that
Kepler’s equal-area law: The line connecting a is also in proportion to their masses. Newton
planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal therefore hypothesized a universal law of grav-
amounts of time. ity,
Kepler’s law of periods: The time required for Gm1 m2
a planet to orbit the sun, called its period, is pro- F = ,
r2
portional to the long axis of the ellipse raised to
the 3/2 power. The constant of proportionality which states that any two massive particles, any-
is the same for all the planets. where in the universe, attract each other with a
certain amount of force. The universal constant
G is equal to 6.67 × 10−11 N·m2 /kg2 .

11.3 The shell theorem

Newton proved the following theorem, known as
the shell theorem:
If an object lies outside a thin, spherical shell
of mass, then the vector sum of all the gravita-
tional forces exerted by all the parts of the shell
Figure 11.1: If the time interval taken by the is the same as if the shell’s mass had been con-
planet to move from P to Q is equal to the time centrated at its center. If the object lies inside
interval from R to S, then according to Kepler’s the shell, then all the gravitational forces cancel
equal-area law, the two shaded areas are equal. out exactly.
The earth is nearly spherical, and the density

127
128 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

in each concentric spherical shell is nearly con- This fact had first been demonstrated em-
stant. Therefore for terrestrial gravity, each shell pirically a generation earlier by Galileo, who
acts as though its mass was at the center, and dropped a cannonball and a musketball simul-
the result is the same as if the whole mass was taneously from the leaning tower of Pisa, and
there. observed that they hit the ground at nearly the
same time. This contradicted Aristotle’s long-
accepted idea that heavier objects fell faster.
Modern experiments have verified the universal-
ity of free fall to the phenomenal precision of
about one part in 1011 .

11.5 Current status of New-

ton’s theory
Newton’s theory of gravity, according to which
masses act on one another instantaneously at a
distance, is not consistent with Einstein’s the-
Figure 11.2: Cut-away view of a spherical shell ory of relativity, which requires that all phys-
of mass. A, who is outside the shell, feels grav- ical influences travel no faster than the speed
itational forces from every part of the shell — of light. Einstein generalized Newton’s descrip-
stronger forces from the closer parts, and weaker tion of gravity in his general theory of relativ-
ones from the parts farther away. The shell the- ity. Newton’s theory is a good approximation to
orem states that the vector sum of all the forces the general theory when the masses that interact
is the same as if all the mass had been concen- move at speeds small compared to the speed of
trated at the center of the shell. B, at the center, light, when the gravitational fields are weak, and
is clearly weightless, because the shell’s gravita- when the distances involved are small in cosmo-
tional forces cancel out. Surprisingly, C also feels logical terms. General relativity is needed in or-
exactly zero gravitational force. der to discuss phenomena such as neutron stars
and black holes, the big bang and the expan-
sion of the universe. The effects of general rel-
ativity also become important, for example, in
11.4 Universality of free fall the Global Positioning System (GPS), where ex-
tremely high precision is required, so that even
Suppose that masses m1 and m2 interact gravita- extremely small deivations from the Newtonian
tionally, and m1 is fixed in place, or has so much picture are important.
mass that its inertia makes its acceleration neg- General relativity shares with Newtonian
ligible. For example, m1 could be the earth, and gravity the prediction that free fall is universal.
m2 a rock. When we combine Newton’s law of High-precision tests of this universality are there-
gravity with Newton’s second law, we find that fore stringent tests of both theories.
m2 ’s acceleration equals Gm1 /r2 , which is com-
pletely independent of the mass m2 . (We assume
that no other forces act.) That is, if we give an 11.6 Energy
object a certain initial position and velocity in an
ambient gravitational field, then its later motion Newton’s law of gravity can be restated as a de-
is independent of its mass: free fall is universal. scription of energy rather than force. Taking the
11.6. ENERGY 129

indefinite integral of the force law gives the ex-

pression
GM m
PE = − ,
r
where for convenience the constant of integration
is taken to be zero.
130 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

Problems 11-d3 Roy has a mass of 60 kg. Laurie has a

mass of 65 kg. They are 1.5 m apart.
11-a1 Astronomers have detected a solar sys- (a) What is the magnitude of the gravitational
tem consisting of three planets orbiting the star force of the earth on Roy?
Upsilon Andromedae. The planets have been (b) What is the magnitude of Roy’s gravitational
named b, c, and d. Planet b’s average distance force on the earth?
from the star is 0.059 A.U., and planet c’s aver- (c) What is the magnitude of the gravitational
age distance is 0.83 A.U., where an astronomical force between Roy and Laurie?
unit or A.U. is defined as the distance from the (d) What is the magnitude of the gravitational
Earth to the sun. For technical reasons, it is force between Laurie and the sun? √
possible to determine the ratios of the planets’
masses, but their masses cannot presently be de- 11-d4 The planet Uranus has a mass of 8.68×
termined in absolute units. Planet c’s mass is 1025 kg and a radius of 2.56×104 km. The figure
3.0 times that of planet b. Compare the star’s shows the relative sizes of Uranus and Earth.
average gravitational force on planet c with its (a) Compute the ratio gU /gE , where gU is the
average force on planet b. [Based on a problem strength of the gravitational field at the surface
by Arnold Arons.] of Uranus and gE is the corresponding quantity √
. Solution, p. 237 at the surface of the Earth.
11-a2 The star Lalande 21185 was found in (b) What is surprising about this result? How
1996 to have two planets in roughly circular or- do you explain it?
bits, with periods of 6 and 30 years. What is the
ratio of the two planets’ orbital radii? √ 11-d5 The International Space Station orbits
at an average altitude of about 370 km above sea
11-d1 Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar
level. Compute the value of g at that altitude.
√
system, is a spherical body with a mass 6000
times less than the earth’s, and a radius which
is 13 times smaller. If an astronaut who weighs 11-d6 Two spherical objects, both of mass m
400 N on earth is visiting the surface of Ceres, and radius R, have center-to-center separation
what is her weight? 4R and are initially at rest. No external forces
. Solution, p. 237 act. The spheres accelerate towards one another
11-d2 (a) A certain vile alien gangster lives until they collide.
on the surface of an asteroid, where his weight is (a) What is the speed of each object just before
0.20 N. He decides he needs to lose weight with- the collision? Find the exact answer using √
out reducing his consumption of princesses, so energy methods.
he’s going to move to a different asteroid where (b) Using the final speed from part (a), and
his weight will be 0.10 N. The real estate agent’s assuming the acceleration is roughly constant
database has asteroids listed by mass, however, and equal to the initial acceleration, calculate
not by surface gravity. Assuming that all as- an upper limit on the time it takes for the two
teroids are spherical and have the same density, objects to collide. (The actual time will be
how should the mass of his new asteroid compare shorter, because the acceleration increases as √
with that of his old one? they get closer.)
(b) Jupiter’s mass is 318 times the Earth’s, and (c) Calculate a numerical value of the time from
its gravity is about twice Earth’s. Is this consis- part b, in the case of two bowling balls having√
tent with the results of part a? If not, how do m = 7 kg and R = 0.1 m.
you explain the discrepancy?
. Solution, p. 237
PROBLEMS 131

Problem 11-d9.

Problem 11-d10.
132 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

Problem 11-d4.

11-d7 The figure shows the International

Space Station (ISS). One of the purposes of the
ISS is supposed to be to carry out experiments
in microgravity. However, the following factor
limits this application. The ISS orbits the earth
Problem 11-d7.
once every 92.6 minutes. It is desirable to keep
the same side of the station always oriented to-
ward the earth, which means that the station has
to rotate with the same period. In the photo, the form a triangle with a 135◦ interior angle at the
direction of orbital motion is left or right on the moon’s corner. What is the magnitude of the
page, so the rotation is about the axis shown as total gravitational force of the earth and the sun
up and down on the page. The greatest distance on the moon? (If you haven’t done problem 11-
of any pressurized compartment from the axis d8 already, you might want to try it first, since
of rotation is 36.5 meters. Find the acceleration it’s easier, and some of its results can be recycled
due to the rotation at this point, and the appar- in this problem.) √
ent weight of a 60 kg astronaut at that location.
√
11-d10 On Feb. 28, 2007, the New Hori-
11-d8 During a solar eclipse, the moon, earth
zons space probe, on its way to a 2015 flyby of
and sun all lie on the same line, with the moon Pluto, passed by the planet Jupiter for a gravity-
between the earth and sun. Define your coordi- assisted maneuver that increased its speed and
nates so that the earth and moon lie at greater changed its course. The dashed line in the fig-
x values than the sun. For each force, give the ure shows the spacecraft’s trajectory, which is
correct sign as well as the magnitude. (a) What curved because of three forces: the force of the
force is exerted on the moon by the sun? (b) On exhaust gases from the probe’s own engines, the
the moon by the earth? (c) On the earth by the sun’s gravitational force, and Jupiter’s gravita-
sun? (d) What total force is exerted on the sun? tional force. Find the magnitude of the total
(e) On the moon? (f) On the earth? √ gravitational force acting on the probe. You will
find that the sun’s force is much smaller than
11-d9 Suppose that on a certain day there is Jupiter’s, so that the magnitude of the total force
a crescent moon, and you can tell by the shape is determined almost entirely by Jupiter’s force.
of the crescent that the earth, sun and moon However, this is a high-precision problem, and
PROBLEMS 133

you will find that the total force is slightly dif- the mass of the object, in units of the mass of
ferent from Jupiter’s force. √
the sun, 2 × 1030 kg. If the object was a tightly
packed cluster of normal stars, it should be a
11-g1 Tidal interactions with the earth are very bright source of light. Since no visible light
causing the moon’s orbit to grow gradually is detected coming from it, it is instead believed
larger. Laser beams bounced off of a mirror left to be a supermassive black hole. √
on the moon by astronauts have allowed a mea-
surement of the moon’s rate of recession, which is 11-j3 (a) A geosynchronous orbit is one in
about 4 cm per year. This means that the grav- which the satellite orbits above the equator,
itational force acting between earth and moon and has an orbital period of 24 hours, so
is decreasing. By what fraction does the force that it is always above the same point on the
decrease with each 27-day orbit? spinning earth. Calculate the altitude of such √a
[Based on a problem by Arnold Arons.] satellite.
. Solution, p. 237 (b) What is the gravitational field experienced
11-g2 How high above the Earth’s surface by the satellite? Give your answer as a percent-
must a rocket be in order to have 1/100 the age in relation to the gravitational field at the
√
weight it would have at the surface? Express earth’s surface.
your answer in units of the radius of the Earth.
√

11-g3 You are considering going on a space 11-j4 (a) Suppose a rotating spherical body
voyage to Mars, in which your route would be such as a planet has a radius r and a uniform
half an ellipse, tangent to the Earth’s orbit at density ρ, and the time required for one rotation
one end and tangent to Mars’ orbit at the other. is T . At the surface of the planet, the appar-
Your spacecraft’s engines will only be used at ent acceleration of a falling object is reduced by
the beginning and end, not during the voyage. the acceleration of the ground out from under it.
How long would the outward leg of your trip last? Derive an equation for the apparent acceleration
(The orbits of Earth and Mars are nearly circu- of gravity, g, at the equator in terms of r, ρ, T√,
lar, and Mars’s is bigger by a factor of 1.52.)
√ and G.
(b) Applying your equation from a, by what frac-
11-g4 Where would an object have to be lo- tion is your apparent weight reduced at the equa-
cated so that it would experience zero total grav- tor compared to the poles, due to the Earth’s √
itational force from the earth and moon? √ rotation?
(c) Using your equation from a, derive an equa-
11-j1 In a Star Trek episode, the Enterprise tion giving the value of T for which the appar-
is in a circular orbit around a planet when some- ent acceleration of gravity becomes zero, i.e., ob-
thing happens to the engines. Spock then tells jects can spontaneously drift off the surface of
Kirk that the ship will spiral into the planet’s the planet. Show that T only depends on ρ, and √
surface unless they can fix the engines. Is this not on r.
scientifically correct? Why? (d) Applying your equation from c, how long
would a day have to be in order to reduce the
11-j2 Astronomers have recently observed apparent weight of objects at the equator of the
stars orbiting at very high speeds around an un- Earth to zero? [Answer: 1.4 hours]
known object near the center of our galaxy. For (e) Astronomers have discovered objects they
stars orbiting at distances of about 1014 m from called pulsars, which emit bursts of radiation at
the object, the orbital velocities are about 106 regular intervals of less than a second. If a pulsar
m/s. Assuming the orbits are circular, estimate is to be interpreted as a rotating sphere beaming
134 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

out a natural “searchlight” that sweeps past the

earth with each rotation, use your equation from
c to show that its density would have to be much
greater than that of ordinary matter.
(f) Astrophysicists predicted decades ago that
certain stars that used up their sources of en-
ergy could collapse, forming a ball of neutrons
with the fantastic density of ∼ 1017 kg/m3 . If
this is what pulsars really are, use your equation
from c to explain why no pulsar has ever been
observed that flashes with a period of less than Problem 11-j5.
1 ms or so.

lower than the density of the earth’s crust, prob-

11-j5 The figure shows an image from the
ably indicating that the low gravity is not enough
Galileo space probe taken during its August 1993
to compact the material very tightly, leaving lots
flyby of the asteroid Ida. Astronomers were sur-
of empty space inside.) Suppose that it is pos-
prised when Galileo detected a smaller object or-
sible for an astronaut in a spacesuit to jump at
biting Ida. This smaller object, the only known
2 m/s. Find the radius of the largest asteroid
satellite of an asteroid in our solar system, was
on which it would be possible to jump into a
christened Dactyl, after the mythical creatures
ground-skimming orbit. √
who lived on Mount Ida, and who protected the
infant Zeus. For scale, Ida is about the size and
shape of Orange County, and Dactyl the size of 11-j7 If a bullet is shot straight up at a high
a college campus. Galileo was unfortunately un- enough velocity, it will never return to the earth.
able to measure the time, T , required for Dactyl This is known as the escape velocity. In this
to orbit Ida. If it had, astronomers would have problem, you will analyze the motion of an ob-
been able to make the first accurate determina- ject of mass m whose initial velocity is exactly
tion of the mass and density of an asteroid. Find equal to escape velocity. We assume that it is
an equation for the density, ρ, of Ida in terms starting from the surface of a spherically sym-
of Ida’s known volume, V , the known radius, r, metric planet of mass M and radius b. The trick
of Dactyl’s orbit, and the lamentably unknown is to guess at the general form of the solution,
variable T . (This is the same technique that was and then determine the solution in more detail.
used successfully for determining the masses and Assume (as is true) that the solution is of the
densities of the planets that have moons.) form r = ktp , where r is the object’s distance
. Solution, p. 237 from the center of the planet at time t, and k
and p are constants.
11-j6 On an airless body such as the moon, (a) Find the acceleration, and use Newton’s sec-
there is no atmospheric friction, so it should be ond law and Newton’s law of gravity to deter-
possible for a satellite to orbit at a very low al- mine k and p. You should find that the result is √
titude, just high enough to keep from hitting independent of m.
the mountains. (a) Suppose that such a body (b) What happens to the velocity as t approaches
is a smooth sphere of uniform density ρ and ra- infinity?
dius r. Find the velocity required for a ground- √ (c) Determine escape velocity from the Earth’s
skimming orbit. surface. √
(b) A typical asteroid has a density of about
2 g/cm3 , i.e., twice that of water. (This is a lot
PROBLEMS 135

11-j8 Planet X rotates, as the earth does, 11-m1 Astronomers calculating orbits of
and is perfectly spherical. An astronaut who planets often work in a nonmetric system of
weighs 980.0 N on the earth steps on a scale at units, in which the unit of time is the year, the
the north pole of Planet X and the scale reads unit of mass is the sun’s mass, and the unit of
600.0 N; at the equator of Planet X, the scale distance is the astronomical unit (A.U.), defined
only reads 500.0 N. The distance from the north as half the long axis of the earth’s orbit. In these
pole to the equator is 20,000 km, measured units, find an exact expression for the gravita-
along the surface of Planet X. tional constant, G. √
(a) Explain why the astronaut appears to weigh
more at the north pole of planet X than at the
equator. Which is the “actual” weight of the 11-m2 Suppose that we inhabited a universe
astronaut? Analyze the forces acting on an in which, instead of Newton’s law of gravity, we
√
astronaut standing on a scale, providing one had F = k m1 m2 /r2 , where k is some constant
analysis for the north pole, and one for the with different units than G. (The force is still
equator. attractive.) However, we assume that a = F/m
(b) Find the mass of planet X. Is planet X more and the rest of Newtonian physics remains true,
massive than the earth, or less massive? The and we use a = F/m to define our mass scale, so
radius of the earth is 6370 km, and its mass is that, e.g., a mass of 2 kg is one which exhibits
√
5.97 × 1024 kg. half the acceleration when the same force is ap-
plied to it as to a 1 kg mass.
(c) If a 30,000 kg satellite is orbiting the planet
very close to the surface, what is its orbital (a) Is this new law of gravity consistent with
period? Assume planet X has no atmosphere, Newton’s third law?
√
so that there’s no air resistance. (b) Suppose you lived in such a universe, and you
(d) How long is a day on planet X? Is this longerdropped two unequal masses side by side. What
would happen?
than, or shorter than, the period of the satellite
√
in part c? (c) Numerically, suppose a 1.0-kg object falls
with an acceleration of 10 m/s2 . What would
be the acceleration of a rain drop with a mass of
0.1 g? Would you want to go out in the rain?
11-j9 A 20.0 kg satellite has a circular or- (d) If a falling object broke into two unequal
bit with a period of 2.40 hours and a radius of pieces while it fell, what would happen?
8.00 × 106 m around planet Z. The magnitude of (e) Invent a law of gravity that results in behav-
the gravitational acceleration on the surface of ior that is the opposite of what you found in part
the planet is 8.00 m/s2 . √
b. [Based on a problem by Arnold Arons.]
(a) What is the mass of planet Z? √
(b) What is the radius of planet Z?
(c) Find the KE and the PE of the satellite. 11-m3 The structures that we see in the
What is the ratio PE/KE (including both magni- universe, such as solar systems, galaxies, and
tude and sign)? You should get an integer. This clusters of galaxies, are believed to have con-
is a special case of something called the virial densed from clumps that formed, due to grav-
√
theorem. itational attraction, in preexisting clouds of gas
(d) Someone standing on the surface of the and dust. Observations of the cosmic microwave
planet sees a moon orbiting the planet (a cir- background radiation suggest that the mixture
cular orbit) with a period of 20.0 days. What is of hot hydrogen and helium that existed soon
the distance between planet Z and its moon? after the Big Bang was extremely uniform, but
√
not perfectly so. We can imagine that any region
that started out a little more dense would form a
136 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

natural center for the collapse of a clump. Sup- strong gravitational fields, so we expect these es-
pose that we have a spherical region with density timates to be rough.
ρ and radius r, and for simplicity let’s just as- (a) For an object of mass M , what would its ra-
sume that it’s surrounded by vacuum. (a) Find dius have to be if all of its mass was to fit within
√
the acceleration of the material at the edge of the Schwarzschild radius?
the cloud. To what power of r is it proportional?
√
(b) Evaluate your equation from part a for M
equal to the masses of the earth and the sun. If
(b) The cloud will take a time t to collapse to these bodies were compressed to approximately
some fraction of its original size. Show that t is these sizes, they would become black holes. (Be-
independent of r. cause these are rough estimates, treat them as
Remark: This result suggests that structures would get having no more than 1 significant figure.)
a chance to form at all scales in the universe. That is, √
solar systems would not form before galaxies got to, or
vice versa. It is therefore physically natural that when
11-m6
we look at the universe at essentially all scales less than Problems 11-m6-11-m8 all investigate
a billion light-years, we see structure. the following idea. Cosmological surveys at the
largest observable distance scales have detected
structures like filaments. As an idealization of
11-m4 You have a fixed amount of material such a structure, consider a uniform mass distri-
with a fixed density. If the material is formed bution lying along the entire x axis, with mass
into some shape S, then there will be some point density λ in units of kg/m. The purpose of this
in space at which the resulting gravitational field problem is to find the gravitational field created
attains its maximum value gS . What shape max- by this structure at a distance y.
imizes gS ? (a) Determine as much as possible about the
form of the solution, based on units.
(b) To evaluate the actual result, find the contri-
11-m5 The escape velocity of a massive body bution dg to the y component of the field arising
y
is the speed for which the total energy of a pro- from the mass dm lying between x and x + dx,
jectile is zero: the projectile has just enough then integrate it.
KE to move infinitely far away from the massive . Solution, p. 238
body, with no left-over KE. The escape velocity
depends on the distance from which the projec- 11-m7 Let us slightly change the physical sit-
tile is launched — often the body’s surface. uation described in problem 11-m6, letting the
The Schwarzschild radius (Rs ) of a massive filament have a finite size, while retaining its
body is the radius where the escape velocity is symmetry under rotation about the x axis. The
equal to the speed of light, c = 3.00 × 108 m/s. details don’t actually matter very much for our
An object is called a black hole if it has a purposes, but if we like, we can take the mass
Schwarzschild radius. density to be constant within a cylinder of ra-
An object must be very compact to be a black dius b centered on the x axis. Now consider the
hole. For example, escape velocity from the sur- following two limits:
face of the earth is tens of thousands of times less
than c, as is the escape velocity for a projectile g1 = lim lim g and
y→0 b→0
launched from the center of the earth through a
hypothetical radial, evacuated tunnel. g2 = lim lim g.
b→0 y→0
In this problem we will make some numerical
estimates of how compact an object has to be in Each of these is a limit inside another limit, the
order to be a black hole. We will use Newtonian only difference being the order of the limits. Ei-
gravity, which is a poor approximation for such ther of these could be used as a definition of the
PROBLEMS 137

field at a point on an infinitely thin filament. Do 11-p3 The shell theorem describes two cases,
they agree? inside and outside. Show that for an alternative
law of gravity F = GM mr (with r1 rather than
−2
11-m8 Suppose we have a mass filament like r ), the outside case still holds.
the one described in problems 11-m6 and 11-m7,
but now rather than taking it to be straight, let
it have the shape of an arbitrary smooth curve. 11-p4 The figure shows a region of outer
Locally, “under a microscope,” this curve will space in which two stars have exploded, leaving
look like an arc of a circle, i.e., we can describe behind two overlapping spherical shells of gas,
its shape solely in terms of a radius of curvature. which we assume to remain at rest. The figure is
As in problem 11-m7, consider a point P lying a cross-section in a plane containing the shells’
on the filament itself, taking g to be defined as centers. A space probe is released with a very
in definition g1 . Investigate whether g is finite, small initial speed at the point indicated by the
and also whether it points in a specific direction. arrow, initially moving in the direction indicated
To clarify the mathematical idea, consider the by the dashed line. Without any further infor-
following two limits: mation, predict as much as possible about the
path followed by the probe and its changes in
1 speed along that path.
A = lim and
x→0 x
1
B = lim 2 .
x→0 x
11-p5 Approximate the earth’s density as be-
We say that A = ∞, while B = +∞, i.e., both ing constant. (a) Find the gravitational field at
diverge, but B diverges with a definite sign. For a point P inside the earth and half-way between
a straight filament, as in problem 11-m6, with an the center and the surface. Express your result
infinite radius of curvature, symmetry guaran- as a ratio gP /gS relative to the field we expe-
tees that the field at P has no specific direction, rience at the surface. (b) As a check on your
in analogy with limit A. For a curved filament, answer, make sure that the same reasoning leads
a calculation is required in order to determine to a reasonable result when the fraction 1/2 is re-
whether we get behavior A or B. Based on your placed by the value 0 (P being the earth’s center)
result, what is the expected dynamical behavior or the value 1 (P being a point on the surface).
of such a filament?

11-p1 11-p6
(a) If the earth was of uniform density, The earth is divided into solid inner
would your weight be increased or decreased at core, a liquid outer core, and a plastic mantle.
the bottom of a mine shaft? Explain. Physical properties such as density change dis-
continuously at the boundaries between one layer
(b) In real life, objects weigh slightly more at the
bottom of a mine shaft. What does that allow and the next. Although the density is not com-
us to infer about the Earth? pletely constant within each region, we will ap-
proximate it as being so for the purposes of this
problem. (We neglect the crust as well.) Let R
11-p2 Consult a proof of the shell theorem be the radius of the earth as a whole and M its
in your textbook or in some other source such mass. The following table gives a model of some
as Wikipedia.Prove that the theorem fails if the properties of the three layers, as determined by
exponent of r in Newton’s law of gravity differs methods such as the observation of earthquake
from −2. waves that have propagated from one side of the
planet to the other.
138 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY

Problem 11-p4.
PROBLEMS 139

region outer radius/R mass/M

mantle 1 0.69
outer core 0.55 0.29
inner core 0.19 0.017
The boundary between the mantle and the
outer core is referred to as the Gutenberg dis-
continuity. Let gs be the strength of the earth’s
gravitational field at its surface and gG its value
at the Gutenberg discontinuity. Find gG /gs√ .

11-s1 Starting at a distance r from a planet

of mass M , how fast must an object be mov-
ing in order to have a hyperbolic orbit, i.e., one
that never comes back to the planet? This ve-
locity is called the escape velocity. Interpreting
the result, does it matter in what direction the
velocity is? Does it matter what mass the object
has? Does the object escape because it is moving
too fast for gravity to act on it? √

11-s2 A certain binary star system consists

of two stars with masses m1 and m2 , separated
by a distance b. A comet, originally nearly at
rest in deep space, drops into the system and at
a certain point in time arrives at the midpoint
between the two stars. For that moment in time,
find its velocity, v, symbolically in terms of b, m1 ,
m2 , and fundamental constants. √
140 CHAPTER 11. GRAVITY
12 Oscillations
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems the motion be one-dimensional, let the equilib-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although rium be at x = 0, and let friction be negligible.
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- Then by conservation of energy, the oscillations
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is are periodic, and they extend from some nega-
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to tive value of x on the left to a value on the right
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- that is the same except for the sign. We describe
pose of the summary is to show what material is the size of the oscillations as their amplitude, A.
needed in order to do the problems, and to show When the oscillations are small enough,
what terminology and notation are being used. Hooke’s law F = −kx is a good approxima-
tion, because any function looks linear close up.
Therefore all such oscillations have a universal
12.1 Periodic motion character, differing only in amplitude and fre-
quency. Such oscillations are referred to as sim-
The sine function has the property that sin(x + ple harmonic motion.
2π) = sin x, so that whetever the function is do- For simple harmonic motion, Newton’s second
ing at one point, it is guaranteed to do the same law gives x00 = −(k/m)x. This is a type of
thing again at a point 2π to the right. Such equation referred to as a differential equation,
a function is called periodic. When an object’s because it relates the function x(t) to its own
position as a function of time is periodic, we say (second) derivative. The solution of the equa-
that it exhibits periodic motion. Examples in- tion is x = A sin(ωt + δ), where
clude uniform circular motion and a mass vibrat-
ing back and forth frictionlessly on a spring. The r
k
time from one repetition of the motion to the ω=
m
next is called the period, T . The inverse of the
period is the frequency, is independent of the amplitude.
1
f= ,
T
12.3 Damped oscillations
and it is also convenient to define the angular
frequency The total energy of an oscillation is proportional
2π
ω= . to the square of the amplitude. In the simple
T harmonic oscillator, the amplitude and energy
Either f or ω can be referred to simply as fre- are constant. Unlike this idealization, real oscil-
quency, when context makes it clear or the dis- lating systems have mechanisms such as friction
tinction isn’t important. The units of frequency that dissipate energy. These mechanisms are re-
are s−1 , which can also be abbreviated as hertz, ferred to as damping. A simple mathematical
1 Hz = 1 s−1 . model that incorporates this behavior is to incor-
porate a frictional force that is proportional to
velocity. The equation of motion then becomes
12.2 Simple harmonic mo- mx00 + bx0 +√kx = 0. In the most common case,
tion where b < 2 km. In this underdamped case, the
solutions are decaying exponentials of the form
When an object is displaced from equilibrium, it
can oscillate around the equilibrium point. Let x = Ae−ct sin ωt,

141
142 CHAPTER 12. OSCILLATIONS

where c = b/2m and ω = [k/m − b2 /4m2 ]1/2 . (1) The steady-state response to a sinusoidal
It is customary to describe the amount of driving force occurs at the frequency of the force,
damping with a quantity called the quality fac- not at the system’s own natural frequency of vi-
tor, Q, defined as the number of cycles required bration.
for the energy to fall off by a factor of e2π ≈ 535. (2) A vibrating system resonates at its own
The terminology arises from the fact that friction natural frequency.1 That is, the amplitude of the
is often considered a bad thing, so a mechanical steady-state response is greatest in proportion
device that can vibrate for many oscillations be- to the amount of driving force when the driving
fore it loses a significant fraction of its energy force matches the natural frequency of vibration.
would be considered a high-quality device. (3) When a system is driven at resonance, the
Underdamped motion occurs for Q > 1/2. For steady-state vibrations have an amplitude that
the case Q < 1/2, referred to as overdamped, is proportional to Q.
there are no oscillations, and the motion is a de- (4) The FWHM of a resonance, defined in fig-
caying exponential. ure 12.1, is related to its Q and its resonant fre-
quency fres by the equation
fres
12.4 Driven oscillations FWHM = .
Q

It is often of interest to consider an oscillator (This equation is only a good approximation

that is driven by an oscillating force. Examples when Q is large.)
would be a mother pushing a child on a play-
ground swing, or the ear responding to a sound
wave. We assume for simplicity that the driving
force oscillates sinusoidally with time, although
most of the same results are qualitatively correct
when this requirement is relaxed. The oscillator
responds to the driving force by gradually set-
tling down into a steady, sinusoidal pattern of
vibration called the steady state. Figure 12.1
shows the bell-shaped curve that results when
we graph the energy of the steady-state response
against the frequency of the driving force. We
have the following results.

Figure 12.1: The response of an oscillator to a

driving force, showing the definition of the full 1 This is an approximation, which is valid in the usual
width at half maximum (FWHM). case where Q is significantly greater than 1.
PROBLEMS 143

Problems Fair = ax−β , where β = 1.4 and a is a constant

with funny units of N · m1.4 . For simplicity, as-
12-a1 Many single-celled organisms propel sume the air only supports the weight mg of the
themselves through water with long tails, which piston itself, although in practice this device is
they wiggle back and forth. (The most obvious used to support some other object. The equi-
example is the sperm cell.) The frequency of the librium position, x0 , is where mg equals −Fair .
tail’s vibration is typically about 10-15 Hz. To (Note that in the main text I have assumed the
what range of periods does this range of frequen- equilibrium position to be at x = 0, but that is
cies correspond? not the natural choice here.) Assume friction is
√
negligible, and consider a case where the ampli-
12-a2 The figure shows the oscillation of a tude of the vibrations is very small. Find the
microphone in response to the author whistling angular frequency of oscillation. √
the musical note “A.” The horizontal axis, rep-
resenting time, has a scale of 1.0 ms per square. 12-d4 Verify that energy is conserved in sim-
Find the period T , the frequency f , and the an- ple harmonic motion.
gular frequency ω. √

12-d5 Archimedes’ principle states that an

object partly or wholly immersed in fluid experi-
ences a buoyant force equal to the weight of the
fluid it displaces. For instance, if a boat is float-
ing in water, the upward pressure of the water
(vector sum of all the forces of the water press-
ing inward and upward on every square inch of
its hull) must be equal to the weight of the wa-
Problem 12-a2.
ter displaced, because if the boat was instantly
removed and the hole in the water filled back in,
Show that the equation T = 2π m/k the force of the surrounding water would be just
p
12-d1
has units that make sense. the right amount to hold up this new “chunk”
of water. (a) Show that a cube of mass m with
edges of length b floating upright (not tilted) in
12-d2 (a) Pendulum 2 has a string twice as
a fluid of density ρ will have a draft (depth to
long as pendulum 1. If we define x as the dis-
which it sinks below the waterline) h given at
tance traveled by the bob along a circle away
equilibrium by h0 = m/b2 ρ. (b) Find the total
from the bottom, how does the k of pendulum 2
force on the cube when its draft is h, and ver-
compare with the k of pendulum 1? Give a nu-
ify that plugging in h − h0 gives a total force of
merical ratio. [Hint: the total force on the bob is
zero. (c) Find the cube’s period of oscillation as
the same if the angles away from the bottom are
it bobs up and down in the water, and show that
the same, but equal angles do not correspond to
can be expressed in terms of and g only. √
equal values of x.]
(b) Based on your answer from part (a), how
does the period of pendulum 2 compare with the 12-d6 A hot scientific question of the 18th
period of pendulum 1? Give a numerical ratio. century was the shape of the earth: whether its
radius was greater at the equator than at the
12-d3 A pneumatic spring consists of a pis- poles, or the other way around. One method
ton riding on top of the air in a cylinder. The used to attack this question was to measure
upward force of the air on the piston is given by gravity accurately in different locations on the
144 CHAPTER 12. OSCILLATIONS

√
earth using pendula. If the highest and low- of the glider.
est latitudes accessible to explorers were 0 and (b) Notice that the graph says that the maxi-
70 degrees, then the the strength of gravity mum acceleration of the glider is 12.0 m/s2 . Use
√
would in reality be observed to vary over a range this to find the amplitude of oscillations, A.
from about 9.780 to 9.826 m/s2 . This change, (c) When the glider is A/3 away from its equilib-
amounting to 0.046 m/s2 , is greater than the rium position, what are its kinetic and potential
√
0.022 m/s2 effect to be expected if the earth had energies?
been spherical. The greater effect occurs because (d) Suppose x(t) = A cos(ωt+φ), where 0 ≤ φ <
the equator feels a reduction due not just to the 2π. Find φ. √
acceleration of the spinning earth out from un-
der it, but also to the greater radius of the earth
at the equator. What is the accuracy with which
the period of a one-second pendulum would have
to be measured in order to prove that the earth
was not a sphere, and that it bulged at the equa-
tor? √

12-d7 A certain mass, when hung from a cer-

tain spring, causes the spring to stretch by an
amount h compared to its equilibrium length. If Problem 12-d9.
the mass is displaced vertically from this equilib-
rium, it will oscillate up and down with a period
12-g1 Consider the same pneumatic piston
Tosc . Give a numerical comparison between Tosc
described in problem 12-d3, but now imagine
and Tf all , the time required for the mass to fall
that the oscillations are not small. Sketch a
from rest through a height h, when it isn’t at-
graph of the total force on the piston as it would
tached to the spring. (You will need the result
appear over this wider range of motion. For a
of problem ??). √ wider range of motion, explain why the vibra-
tion of the piston about equilibrium is not simple
12-d8 An object undergoing simple har- harmonic motion, and sketch a graph of x vs t,
monic motion oscillates with position x(t) = showing roughly how the curve is different from
(35 cm) cos[(25 s−1 )t + π]. a sine wave. [Hint: Acceleration corresponds to
(a) Find the period, angular frequency, and √ the curvature of the x − t graph, so if the force
frequency. is greater, the graph should curve around more
(b) What is the initial velocity? What is the √ quickly.]
maximum speed?
(c) What is the initial acceleration? What is the
√ 12-g2 The figure shows a see-saw with two
maximum in magnitude of the acceleration? springs at Codornices Park in Berkeley, Califor-
(d) Find the location and velocity of the object nia. Each spring has spring constant k, and a
at 1.00 s. √ kid of mass m sits on each seat. (a) Find the
period of vibration in terms of the variables k,
12-d9 On a frictionless, horizontal air track, m, a, and b. (b) Discuss the special case where
a glider oscillates at the end of an ideal spring of a = b, rather than a > b as in the real see-saw.
force constant 150 N/m. The graph shows the (c) Show that your answer to part a also makes
acceleration of the glider as a function of time. sense in the case of b = 0. √
(a) Find the period of oscillations and the mass
PROBLEMS 145

Problem 12-g4.
Problem 12-g2.

12-g5 For a one-dimensional harmonic os-

12-g3 Find the period of vertical oscillations cillator, the solution to the energy conservation
of the mass m. The spring, pulley, and ropes equation,
have negligible mass. √ 1 1
U + K = kx2 + mv 2 = constant,
2 2
p
is an oscillation with frequency ω = k/m.
Now consider an analogous system consisting of
a bar magnet hung from a thread, which acts
like a magnetic compass. A normal compass
is full of water, so its oscillations are strongly
damped, but the magnet-on-a-thread compass
has very little friction, and will oscillate repeat-
edly around its equilibrium direction. The mag-
netic energy of the bar magnet is

U = −Bm cos θ,

where B is a constant that measures the strength

Problem 12-g3. of the earth’s magnetic field, m is a constant that
parametrizes the strength of the magnet, and θ is
the angle, measured in radians, between the bar
12-g4 The equilibrium length of each spring magnet and magnetic north. The equilibrium
in the figure is b, so when the mass m is at occurs at θ = 0, which is the minimum of U .
the center, neither spring exerts any force on (a) By making analogies between rotational and
it. When the mass is displaced to the side, the linear motion, translate the equation defining the
springs stretch; their spring constants are both linear quantity k to one that defines an analo-
k. gous angular one κ (Greek letter kappa). Apply-
(a) Find the energy, U , stored in the springs, as ing this to the present example, find an expres-
a function of y, the distance of the mass up or sion for κ. (Assume the thread is so thin that
√
down from the center. its stiffness does not have any significant effect
√
(b) Show that the period of small up-down oscil- compared to earth’s magnetic field.)
lations is infinite. (b) Find the frequency of the compass’s vibra-
tions. √
146 CHAPTER 12. OSCILLATIONS

12-j1 A mass m on a spring oscillates around Problems 12-k1 through 12-k4 require specific
an equilibrium at x = 0. Any function F (x) knowledge of the properties of simple and physi-
with an equilibrium at x = 0, F (0) = 0, cal pendulums.
can be approximated as F (x) = −kx, and if 12-k1 A simple pendulum of length L is re-
the spring’s behavior is symmetric with respect leased from from angle θ. Solve for the maximum
to positive and negative values of x, so that speed of the pendulum bob two ways: √
F (−x) = −F (x), then the next level of im- (a) Exactly, by using conservation of energy.
provement in such an approximation would be (b) Approximately, by assuming θ 1, using
F (x) = −kx − bx3 . The general idea here is |vmax | = Aω, and writing A and ω in terms of
that any smooth function can be approximated the given quantities. Your result is the first non-
locally by a polynomial, and if you want a better zero term in the Taylor expansion of the exact
approximation, you can use a polynomial with answer around θ = 0. √
more terms in it. When you ask your calculator
to calculate a function like sin or ex , it’s using a 12-k2 A pendulum of length L has period
polynomial approximation with 10 or 12 terms. T on Earth. If a pendulum of length 2L has a
Physically, a spring with a positive value of b gets period 4T on planet W, then what is the accel-
stiffer when stretched strongly than an “ideal” eration due to gravity on planet W? Give your
spring with b = 0. A spring with a negative b answer to two significant figures. √
is like a person who cracks under stress — when
you stretch it too much, it becomes more elastic 12-k3 A uniform rod of length L is hung at
than an ideal spring would. We should not ex- one end. What is the period of oscillations for
pect any spring to give totally ideal behavior no this physical pendulum? √
matter no matter how much it is stretched. For
example, there has to be some point at which it 12-k4 A pendulum with length L has pe-
breaks. riod T when a very small mass is placed at the
Do a numerical simulation of the oscillation of end of it (with size much less than L). Suppose
a mass on a spring whose force has a nonvan- we do not want to ignore the size of the bob.
ishing b. Is the period still independent of am- Consider a spherical bob with radius xL (x is a
plitude? Is the amplitude-independent equation dimensionless constant, and L is the length of
for the period still approximately valid for small the string, connecting the pivot to the center of
enough amplitudes? Does the addition of an x3 the bob). The periodpof motion of this physical
term with b > 0 tend to increase the period, or pendulum is T = 2π L/gf (x). What is f (x)?
decrease it? Include a printout of your program Your expression for f (x) should satisfy f (0) = 1.
and its output with your homework paper. (Why?) √

12-j2 An idealized pendulum consists of a 12-m1 If one stereo system is capable of pro-
pointlike mass m on the end of a massless, rigid ducing 20 watts of sound power and another can
rod of length L. Its amplitude, θ, is the angle the put out 50 watts, how many times greater is the
rod makes with the vertical when the pendulum amplitude of the sound wave that can be created
is at the end of its swing. Write a numerical sim- by the more powerful system? (Assume they are
ulation to determine the period of the pendulum playing the same music.)
for any combination of m, L, and θ. Examine
the effect of changing each variable while manip- 12-m2 What fraction of the total energy of
ulating the others. an object undergoing SHM is kinetic at time t =
T /3 (where T is the period of motion) if:
(a) the object is at maximum displacement from
PROBLEMS 147

√
equilibrium at t = 0; 12-p2 (a) We observe that the amplitude of
(b) the object is at equilibrium at t = 0. √
a certain free oscillation decreases from Ao to √
Ao /Z after n oscillations. Find its Q.
12-m3 An object undergoing simple har- (b) The figure is from Shape memory in Spider
monic motion has amplitude A and angular fre- draglines, Emile, Le Floch, and Vollrath, Nature
quency ω. What is the speed of the object when 440:621 (2006). Panel 1 shows an electron mi-
it is at a distance x = A/4 from equilibrium? croscope’s image of a thread of spider silk. In
√
2, a spider is hanging from such a thread. From
12-m4 A spring is attached to a wall as shown an evolutionary point of view, it’s probably a
(the horizontal surface is frictionless). One fact bad thing for the spider if it twists back and
is known about the spring: when compressed a forth while hanging like this. (We’re referring
distance 11.0 cm, the spring holds 1.00 J of elas- to a back-and-forth rotation about the axis of
tic potential energy. the thread, not a swinging motion like a pendu-
(a) What mass M must be attached to the spring lum.) The authors speculate that such a vibra-
so that it will oscillate with a period of 1.00 s?√ tion could make the spider easier for predators
to see, and it also seems to me that it would be
(b) If the amplitude of the motion is 5.00 cm and a bad thing just because the spider wouldn’t be
the period is that specified in part a, where is the able to control its orientation and do what it was
object (relative to equilibrium) and in what di- trying to do. Panel 3 shows a graph of such an
rection is it moving 0.35 s after it has passed the oscillation, which the authors measured using a
√
equilibrium position, moving to the left? video camera and a computer, with a 0.1 g mass
(c) At the instant described in part b, what are hung from it in place of a spider. Compared to
the kinetic and potential energies of the system? human-made fibers such as kevlar or copper wire,
√
the spider thread has an unusual set of proper-
(d) What force (magnitude and direction) does ties:
the spring exert on mass M when it is 3.00 cm 1. It has a low Q, so the vibrations damp out
to the right of the equilibrium position, moving quickly.
to the right?
2. It doesn’t become brittle with repeated
12-p1 (a) Let W be the amount of work done twisting as a copper wire would.
by friction in the first cycle of oscillation, i.e., the 3. When twisted, it tends to settle in to a new
amount of energy lost to heat. Find the fraction equilibrium angle, rather than insisting on
of the original energy E that remains in the os- returning to its original angle. You can see
cillations after n cycles of motion. this in panel 2, because although the exper-
(b) From this, prove the equation imenters initially twisted the wire by 35 de-
Q grees, the thread only performed oscillations
W
1− = e−2π with an amplitude much smaller than ±35
E degrees, settling down to a new equilibrium
at 27 degrees.
(recalling that the number 535 in the definition
of Q is e2π ). 4. Over much longer time scales (hours), the
(c) Use this to prove the approximation 1/Q ≈ thread eventually resets itself to its origi-
(1/2π)W/E. (Hint: Use the approximation nal equilbrium angle (shown as zero degrees
ln(1 + x) ≈ x, which is valid for small values on the graph). (The graph reproduced here
of x, as shown on p. ??.) only shows the motion over a much shorter
time scale.) Some human-made materials
148 CHAPTER 12. OSCILLATIONS

Problem 12-p2.

to the undamped case. You should get an answer

much less than 1%, which means the approxima-
tion made in part c was justified. √
?

Problem 12-m4.

have this “memory” property as well, but

they typically need to be heated in order to
make them go back to their original shapes.
Focusing on property number 1, estimate the Q
of spider silk from the graph. √ Problem 12-p3.

12-p3 An object has underdamped motion as

depicted in the figure, where T = 2π/ω, p and, as 12-s1 Many fish have an organ known as a
described in the text, ω differs from ω0 = k/m. swim bladder, an air-filled cavity whose main
(a) What fraction of the energy was lost during purpose is to control the fish’s buoyancy and al-
this first cycle? This fraction is lost in every en-
√
low it to keep from rising or sinking without hav-
suing cycle. ing to use its muscles. In some fish, however, the
(b) Where will the object be (in terms of A) af- √
swim bladder (or a small extension of it) is linked
ter the second full oscillation? to the ear and serves the additional purpose of
(c) By assuming ω ≈ ω0 , what is the value√ of b? amplifying sound waves. For a typical fish hav-
To express your answer, write b = C km, and √
ing such an anatomy, the bladder has a resonant
solve for the unitless constant C. frequency of 300 Hz, the bladder’s Q is 3, and
(d) Use this value of b to find the percentage in- the maximum amplification is about a factor of
crease in the period of the motion as compared 100 in energy. Over what range of frequencies
PROBLEMS 149

would the amplification be at least a factor of (c) Use the previous result, combined with
50? √
the result of problem 4, to prove that Q equals
k/2πbf .
(d) Combine the preceding result for Q with
12-s2 As noted in section ??, it is only ap- the equation FWHM = b/2πm from section ??
proximately true that the amplitude has itspmax- to prove the equation FWHM = fres /Q.
imum at the natural frequency (1/2π) k/m.
Being more careful, we should actually p define
two different symbols, fo = (1/2π) k/m and
fres for the slightly different frequency at which
the amplitude is a maximum, i.e., the actual res-
onant frequency. In this notation, the amplitude
as a function of frequency is
F
A= q .
2
2π 4π 2 m2 (f 2 − f02 ) + b2 f 2
12-s5 An oscillator has Q=6.00, and, for con-
Show that the maximum occurs not at fo but venience, let’s assume F = 1.00, ω = 1.00, and
m o
rather at m = 1.00. The usual approximations would give
r r
b2 1
fres = f0 − 2 2 = f02 − FWHM2
2 ωres = ωo ,
8π m 2
Ares = 6.00, and
Hint: Finding the frequency that minimizes the ∆ω = 1/6.00.
quantity inside the square root is equivalent to,
but much easier than, finding the frequency that Determine these three quantities numerically us-
maximizes the amplitude. ing the result derived on page ?? , and compare
with the approximations.
12-s3 An oscillator with sufficiently strong
damping has its maximum response at ω = 0.
Using the result derived on page ?? , find the
value of Q at which this behavior sets in.

12-s4 The goal of this problem is to refine

the proportionality FWHM ∝ fres /Q into the
equation FWHM = fres /Q, i.e., to prove that
the constant of proportionality equals 1.
(a) Show that the work done by a damping
force F = −bv over one cycle of steady-state
motion equals Wdamp = −2π 2 bf A2 . Hint: It
is less confusing to calculate the work done over
half a cycle, from x = −A to x = +A, and then
double it.
(b) Show that the fraction of the undriven os-
cillator’s energy lost to damping over one cycle
is |Wdamp |/E = 4π 2 bf /k.
150 CHAPTER 12. OSCILLATIONS
13 Waves
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

13.1 Free waves

References:
• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-
ter.com, sec. 6.1
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 1, sec. 16.1-4

13.2 Bounded waves

References:
• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-
ter.com, v. 1, sec. 6.2

151
152 CHAPTER 13. WAVES

Problems greatest magnitude. Pick one of these, and indi-

cate the direction of its velocity vector. Do the
13-a1 The following is a graph of the height same for a point having the maximum magnitude
of a water wave as a function of position, at a of acceleration. Explain all your answers.
certain moment in time. [Problem by Arnold Arons.]
Trace this graph onto another piece of pa-
per, and then sketch below it the corresponding 13-a4 (a) Find an equation for the rela-
graphs that would be obtained if tionship between the Doppler-shifted frequency
(a) the amplitude and frequency were doubled of a wave and the frequency of the original
while the velocity remained the same; wave, for the case of a stationary observer and a
(b) the frequency and velocity were both dou- source moving directly toward or away from the √
bled while the amplitude remained unchanged; observer.
(c) the wavelength and amplitude were re- (b) Check that the units of your answer make
duced by a factor of three while the velocity was sense.
doubled. (c) Check that the dependence on vs makes
Explain all your answers. [Problem by Arnold sense.
Arons.]
13-a5 Suggest a quantitative experiment to
13-a2 (a) The graph shows the height of a wa- look for any deviation from the principle of su-
ter wave pulse as a function of position. Draw a perposition for surface waves in water. Make it
graph of height as a function of time for a specific simple and practical.
point on the water. Assume the pulse is travel-
ing to the right. 13-a6 The musical note middle C has a fre-
(b) Repeat part a, but assume the pulse is trav- quency of 262 Hz. What are its period and wave-
eling to the left. length? √
(c) Now assume the original graph was of height
as a function of time, and draw a graph of height 13-a7 Singing that is off-pitch by more than
as a function of position, assuming the pulse is about 1% sounds bad. How fast would a singer
traveling to the right. have to be moving relative to the rest of a band
(d) Repeat part c, but assume the pulse is trav- to make this much of a change in pitch due to
eling to the left. the Doppler effect? √
Explain all your answers. [Problem by Arnold
Arons.]
13-a8 In section ??, we saw that the speed of
waves on a string depends on the ratio of T /µ,
13-a3 The figure shows one wavelength of i.e., the speed of the wave is greater if the string
a steady sinusoidal wave traveling to the right is under more tension, and less if it has more in-
along a string. Define a coordinate system in ertia. This is true in general: the speed of a me-
which the positive x axis points to the right and chanical wave always depends on the medium’s
the positive y axis up, such that the flattened inertia in relation to the restoring force (tension,
string would have y = 0. Copy the figure, and stiffness, resistance to compression,...). Based on
label with y = 0 all the appropriate parts of the these ideas, explain why the speed of sound in
string. Similarly, label with v = 0 all parts of the air is significantly greater on a hot day, while
string whose velocities are zero, and with a = 0 the speed of sound in liquids and solids shows
all parts whose accelerations are zero. There almost no variation with temperature.
is more than one point whose velocity is of the
PROBLEMS 153

13-a9 At a particular moment in time, a

wave on a string has a shape described by y =
3.5 cos(0.73πx + 0.45πt + 0.37π). The stuff inside
the cosine is in radians. Assume that the units of
the numerical constants are such that x, y, and
t are in SI units.
(a) Is the wave moving in the positive x or the
negative x direction?
(b) Find the wave’s period, frequency, wave-
length.
(c) Find the wave’s velocity. Problem 13-a10.
(d) Find the maximum velocity of any point on
the string, and compare with the magnitude and
direction of the wave’s velocity. √
13-d1 Light travels faster in warmer air. On
13-a10 The simplest trick with a lasso is a sunny day, the sun can heat a road and create a
to spin a flat loop in a horizontal plane. The layer of hot air above it. Let’s model this layer as
whirling loop of a lasso is kept under tension a uniform one with a sharp boundary separating
mainly due to its own rotation. Although the it from the cooler air above. Use this model to
spoke’s force on the loop has an inward compo- explain the formation of a mirage appearing like
nent, we’ll ignore it. The purpose of this prob- the shiny surface of a pool of water.
lem, which is based on one by A.P. French, is
to prove a cute fact about wave disturbances 13-d2 (a) Compute the amplitude of light
moving around the loop. As far as I know, this that is reflected back into air at an air-water in-
fact has no practical implications for trick rop- terface, relative to the amplitude of the incident
ing! Let the loop have radius r and mass per wave. Assume that the light arrives in the di-
unit length µ, and let its angular velocity be ω. rection directly perpendicular to the surface.The
(a) Find the tension, T , in the loop in terms of speeds of light in air and water are 3.0 × 108 and
r, µ, and ω. Assume the loop is a perfect circle,
√ 2.2 × 108 m/s, respectively.
with no wave disturbances on it yet. (b) Find the energy of the reflected wave as a
(b) Find the velocity of a wave pulse traveling fraction of the incident energy. √
around the loop. Discuss what happens when
the pulse moves is in the same direction as the 13-d3 A concert flute produces its lowest
rotation, and when it travels contrary to the ro- note, at about 262 Hz, when half of a wavelength
tation. √ fits inside its tube. Compute the length of the
flute.
13-a11 A string hangs vertically, free at the
bottom and attached at the top. 13-d4 (a) A good tenor saxophone player can
(a) Find the velocity of waves on the string as √a play all of the following notes without changing
function of the distance from the bottom. her fingering, simply by altering the tightness of
(b) Find the acceleration of waves on the string. her lips: E[ (150 Hz), E[ (300 Hz), B[ (450 Hz),
(c) Interpret your answers to parts a and b for and E[ (600 Hz). How is this possible? (I’m not
the case where a pulse comes down and reaches asking you to analyze the coupling between the
the end of the string. What happens next? lips, the reed, the mouthpiece, and the air col-
Check your answer against experiment and con- umn, which is very complicated.)
servation of energy. (b) Some saxophone players are known for their
154 CHAPTER 13. WAVES

(a) If the top plate is cranked down so that the

thickness, d, of the air gap is much less than the
wavelength λ of the light, i.e., in the limit d → 0,
what is the phase relationship between the two
rays? (Recall that the phase can be inverted by
a reflection.) Is the interference constructive, or
destructive?
(b) If d is now slowly increased, what is the first
value of d for which the interference is the same
as at d → 0? Express your answer in terms of λ.
(c) Suppose the apparatus is first set up as shown
in the figure. The filament is then removed, and
Problem 13-d3. n cycles of brightening and dimming are counted
while the top plate is brought down to d = 0.
What is the thickness of the filament, in terms
ability to use this technique to play “freak of n and λ?
notes,” i.e., notes above the normal range of the Based on a problem by D.J. Raymond.
instrument. Why isn’t it possible to play notes
below the normal range using this technique?

13-d5 The table gives the frequencies of the

notes that make up the key of F major, starting
from middle C and going up through all seven
notes.
(a) Calculate the first four or five harmonics of C
and G, and determine whether these two notes
will be consonant or dissonant. (Recall that har-
monics that differ by about 1-10% cause disso-
nance.)
(b) Do the same for C and B[.

13-d6 A Fabry-Perot interferometer, shown Problem 13-d6.

in the figure being used to measure the diame-
ter of a thin filament, consists of two glass plates
with an air gap between them. As the top plate is 13-d7 (a) A wave pulse moves into a new
moved up or down with a screw, the light pass- medium, where its velocity is greater by a factor
ing through the plates goes through a cycle of α. Find an expression for the fraction, f , of the
constructive and destructive interference, which wave energy that is transmitted, in terms of α.
is mainly due to interference between rays that Note that, as discussed in the text, you cannot
pass straight through and those that are reflected simply find f by squaring the amplitude of the
twice back into the air gap. (Although the di- transmitted wave.
mensions in this drawing are distorted for legibil- (b) Suppose we wish to transmit a pulse from
ity, the glass plates would really be much thicker one medium to another, maximizing the fraction
than the length of the wave-trains of light, so no of the wave energy transmitted. To do so, we
interference effects would be observed due to re- sandwich another layer in between them, so that
flections within the glass.) the wave moves from the initial medium, where
PROBLEMS 155

its velocity is v1 , through the intermediate layer,

where it is v2 , and on into the final layer, where
it becomes v3 . What is the optimal value of v2 ?
(Assume that the middle layer is thicker than
the length of the pulse, so there are no interfer-
ence effects. Also, although there will be later
echoes that are transmitted after multiple reflec-
tions back and forth across the middle layer, you
are only to optimize the strength of the trans-
mitted pulse that is first to emerge. In other
words, it’s simply a matter of applying your an-
swer from part a twice to find the amount that
finally gets through.)

13-d8 The expressions for the amplitudes of

reflected and transmitted waves depend on the
unitless ratio v2 /v1 (or, more generally, on the
ratio of the impedances). Call this ratio α. (a)
Show that changing α to 1/α (e.g., by inter-
changing the roles of the two media) has an effect
on the reflected amplitude that can be expressed
in a simple way, and discuss what this means in
terms of inversion and energy. (b) Find the two
values of α for which |R| = 1/2.
156 CHAPTER 13. WAVES
14 Electrical interactions
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems this unit, but quarks are never observed individ-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although ually, only in clusters that have integer multiples
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- of e.) The electron has charge −e, the proton +e.
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- 14.2 The electric field
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show Newton conceived of forces as acting instanta-
what terminology and notation are being used. neously at a distance. We now know that if
masses or charges in a certain location are moved
around, the change in the force felt by a distant
14.1 Charge and Coulomb’s mass or charge is delayed. The effect travels at
the speed of light, which according to Einstein’s
law theory of relativity represents a maximum speed
at which cause and effect can propagate, built in
It appears superficially that nature has many dif- to the very structure of space and time. Because
ferent types of forces, such as frictional forces, time doesn’t appear as a variable in Coulomb’s
normal forces, sticky forces, the force that lets law, Coulomb’s law cannot fundamentally be a
bugs walk on water, the force that makes gun- correct description of electrical interactions. It
powder explode, and the force that causes honey is only an approximation, which is valid when
to flow so slowly. Actually, all of the forces on charges are not moving (the science of electro-
this list are manifestations of electrical interac- statics) or when the time lags in the propagation
tions at the atomic scale. Like gravity, electric- of electrical interactions are negligible. These
ity is a 1/r2 force. The electrical counterpart of considerations imply logically that while an elec-
Newton’s law of gravity is Coulomb’s law, trical effect is traveling through space, it has its
k|q1 ||q2 | own independent physical reality. We think of
F = , (14.1) space as being permeated with an electric field,
r2
which varies dynamically according to its own
where F is the magnitude of the force, k is a rules, even if there are no charges nearby. Phe-
universal constant, r is the distance between the nomena such as visible light and radio waves are
two interacting objects, and q1 and q2 are prop- ripples in the electric (and magnetic) fields. For
erties of the objects called their electric charges. now we will study only static electric fields (ones
This equation is often written using the alternate that don’t change with time), but fields come
form of the constant 0 = 1/(4πk). into their own when their own dynamics are im-
Electric charge is measured in units of portant.
Coulombs, C. Charge is to electricity as mass is The electric field E at a given point in space
to gravity. There are two types of charge, which can be defined in terms of the electric force F
are conventionally labeled positive and negative. that would be exerted on a hypothetical test
Charges of the same type repel one another, and charge qt inserted at that point:
opposite charges attract. Charge is conserved.
F
Charge is quantized, meaning that all charges E= . (14.2)
qt
are integer multiples of a certain fundamental
charge e. (The quarks that compose neutrons By a test charge, we mean one that is small
and protons have charges that come in thirds of enough so that its presence doesn’t disturb the

157
158 CHAPTER 14. ELECTRICAL INTERACTIONS

situation that we’re trying to measure. From the 14.5 The field of a continu-
definition, we see that the electric field is a vec-
tor with units of newtons per coulumb, N/C. Its ous charge distribution
gravitational counterpart is the familiar g, whose
magnitude on earth is about 9.8 m/s2 . Because The field of a continuous charge distribution can
forces combine according to the rules of vector be found by integrating the contribution to the
addition, it follows that the electric field of a field from each infinitesimal part of the distribu-
combination of charges is the vector sum of the tion.
fields that would have been produced individu-
ally by those charges.
The electric field contains energy. The electri- 14.6 Gauss’s law
cal energy contained in an infinitesimal volume
dv is given by dUe = (1/8πk)E 2 dv. When we look at the “sea of arrows” represen-
tation of a field, 14.1/1, there is a natural visual
tendency to imagine connecting the arrows as in
14.3 Conductors and insula- 14.1/2. The curves formed in this way are called
field lines, and they have a direction, shown by
tors the arrowheads.
Some materials, such as metals, are good elec-
trical conductors, meaning that they contain
charges that are free to move. A material like
dry wood is an insulator, because it contains few
such free charges. When a perfect conductor is in
static equilibrium, any net charge is on the sur-
face, and the electric field is zero on its interior.
The electric field at the surface is perpendicular
to the surface.

14.4 The electric dipole

When an unbalanced distribution of charges is
subject to an external electric field E, it experi-
ences a torque τ . We define the electric dipole
moment d to be the vector such that
Figure 14.1: Two different representations of an
τ = d × E. (14.3) electric field.

When the total charge is zero, this relation Electric field lines originate from positive
uniquely defines d, regardless of the point chosen charges and terminate on negative ones. We can
as the axis. In the simplest case, of charges +q choose a constant of proportionality that fixes
and −q at opposite ends of a stick of length `, how coarse or fine the “grain of the wood” is,
the dipole moment has magnitude q` and points but once this choice is made the strength of each
from the negative charge to the positive one. The charge is shown by the number of lines that be-
potential energy of a dipole in an external field gin or end on it. For example, figure 14.1/2
is shows eight lines at each charge, so we know that
U = −d · E. (14.4) q1 /q2 = (−8)/8 = −1. Because lines never begin
14.7. GAUSS’S LAW IN DIFFERENTIAL FORM 159

or end except on a charge, we can always find waves flying around. Gauss’s law can be thought
the total charge inside any given region by sub- of as a definition of electric charge.
tracting the number of lines that go in from the
number that come out and multiplying by the
appropriate constant of proportionality. Ignor- 14.7 Gauss’s law in differen-
ing the constant, we can apply this technique to tial form
figure 14.2 to find qA = −8, qB = 2 − 2 = 0, and
qC = 5 − 5 = 0. Gauss’ law is a bit spooky. It relates the field on
the Gaussian surface to the charges inside the
surface. What if the charges have been moving
around, and the field at the surface right now
is the one that was created by the charges in
their previous locations? Gauss’ law — unlike
Coulomb’s law — still works in cases like these,
but it’s far from obvious how the flux and the
charges can still stay in agreement if the charges
have been moving around.
Figure 14.2: The number of field lines coming For this reason, it would be more physically at-
in and out of each region depends on the total tractive to restate Gauss’ law in a different form,
charge it encloses. so that it related the behavior of the field at one
point to the charges that were actually present
Let us now make this description more math- at that point. We define the divergence of the
ematically precise. Given a smooth, closed sur- electric field,
face such as the ones in figure 14.2, we have an ∂Ex ∂Ey ∂Ez
inside and an outside, so that at any point on div E = + + .
∂x ∂y ∂z
the surface we can define a unit normal n̂ (i.e.,
a vector with magnitude 1, perpendicular to the Gauss’s law in differential form is
surface) that points outward. Given an infinitesi-
mally small piece of the surface, with area dA, we div E = 4πkρ.
define an area vector dA = n̂ dA. The infinites-
imal flux dΦ through this infinitesimal patch of
the surface is defined as dΦ = E · dA, and in-
tegrating Rover theR entire surface gives the total
flux Φ = dΦ = E · dA. Intuitively, the flux
measures how many field lines pierce the surface.
Gauss’s law states that
Φ
qin = , (14.5)
4πk
where qin is the total charge inside a closed sur-
face, and Φ is the flux through the surface. (In
terms of the constant 0 = 1/(4πk), we have
qin = 0 Φ.)
Unlike Coulomb’s law, Gauss’s law holds in
all circumstances, even when there are charges
moving in complicated ways and electromagnetic
160 CHAPTER 14. ELECTRICAL INTERACTIONS

Problems close together (∼ 1 fm) that you can consider

them as being right on top of each other. √
14-a1 The figure shows a neuron, which is
the type of cell your nerves are made of. Neu-
rons serve to transmit sensory information to the
brain, and commands from the brain to the mus-
cles. All this data is transmitted electrically, but
even when the cell is resting and not transmit-
ting any information, there is a layer of negative Problem 14-a2.
electrical charge on the inside of the cell mem-
brane, and a layer of positive charge just out-
side it. This charge is in the form of various 14-a3 The helium atom of problem 14-a2 has
ions dissolved in the interior and exterior fluids. some new experiences, goes through some life
Why would the negative charge remain plastered changes, and later on finds itself in the config-
against the inside surface of the membrane, and uration shown here. What are the direction and
likewise why doesn’t the positive charge wander magnitude of the force acting on the bottom elec-
away from the outside surface? tron? (Draw a sketch to make clear the definition
you are using for the angle that gives direction.)
√

Problem 14-a3.

14-a4 Suppose you are holding your hands in

front of you, 10 cm apart.
(a) Estimate the total number of electrons in √
each hand.
(b) Estimate the total repulsive force of all the
electrons in one hand on all the electrons in the
√
other.
(c) Why don’t you feel your hands repelling each
Problem 14-a1.
other?
(d) Estimate how much the charge of a proton
14-a2 A helium atom finds itself momentar- could differ in magnitude from the charge of an
ily in this arrangement. Find the direction and electron without creating a noticeable force be-
magnitude of the force acting on the right-hand tween your hands.
electron. The two protons in the nucleus are so
PROBLEMS 161

14-a5 Suppose that a proton in a lead nucleus and magnitude of the total force on it? Assume
wanders out to the surface of the nucleus, and there are no other defects nearby in the crystal
experiences a strong nuclear force of about 8 kN besides the two shown here. √
from the nearby neutrons and protons pulling it
back in. Compare this numerically to the repul-
sive electrical force from the other protons, and
verify that the net force is attractive. A lead
nucleus is very nearly spherical, is about 6.5 fm
in radius, and contains 82 protons, each with a
charge of +e, where e = 1.60 × 10−19 C. √

14-a6 The subatomic particles called muons

behave exactly like electrons, except that a
muon’s mass is greater by a factor of 206.77.
Muons are continually bombarding the Earth as
part of the stream of particles from space known
as cosmic rays. When a muon strikes an atom,
it can displace one of its electrons. If the atom Problem 14-a8.
happens to be a hydrogen atom, then the muon
takes up an orbit that is on the average 206.77
times closer to the proton than the orbit of the 14-a9 In the semifinals of an electrostatic
ejected electron. How many times greater is the croquet tournament, Jessica hits her positively
electric force experienced by the muon than that charged ball, sending it across the playing field,
previously felt by the electron? √
rolling to the left along the x axis. It is repelled
by two other positive charges. These two equal
14-a7 The Earth and Moon are bound to- charges are fixed on the y axis at the locations
gether by gravity. If, instead, the force of attrac- shown in the figure. (a) Express the force on
tion were the result of each having a charge of the the ball in terms of the ball’s position, x. (b)
same magnitude but opposite in sign, find the At what value of x does the ball experience the
quantity of charge that would have to be placed greatest deceleration? Express you answer in
on each to produce the required force. terms of b. [Based on a problem by Halliday
√
and Resnick.] √
14-a8 The figure shows one layer of the three-
dimensional structure of a salt crystal. The
atoms extend much farther off in all directions,
but only a six-by-six square is shown here. The
larger circles are the chlorine ions, which have
charges of −e, where e = 1.60 × 10−19 C. The
smaller circles are sodium ions, with charges
of +e. The center-to-center distance between
neighboring ions is about 0.3 nm. Real crystals
are never perfect, and the crystal shown here has
two defects: a missing atom at one location, and
an extra lithium atom, shown as a grey circle, Problem 14-a9.
inserted in one of the small gaps. If the lithium
atom has a charge of +e, what is the direction
162 CHAPTER 14. ELECTRICAL INTERACTIONS

14-a10 As shown in the figure, a particle

of mass m and charge q hangs from a string of
length `, forming a pendulum fixed at a central
point. Another charge q is fixed at the same
distance `, directly below the center. Find the
equilibrium values of θ and determine whether
they are stable or unstable.
?

Problem 14-d2.

upper atmosphere. Lightning occurs when the

magnitude of the electric field reaches a critical
value Ec , at which air is ionized.
(a) Treat the cloud as a flat square with sides of
length L. If it is at a height h above the ground,
find the amount of energy released in the light-√
ning strike.
Problem 14-a10. (b) Based on your answer from part a, which is
more dangerous, a lightning strike from a high-
altitude cloud or a low-altitude one?
14-d1 (a) At time t = 0, a positively charged (c) Make an order-of-magnitude estimate of the
particle is placed, at rest, in a vacuum, in which energy released by a typical lightning bolt, as-
there is a uniform electric field of magnitude E. suming reasonable values for its size and altitude.
Write an equation giving the particle’s speed, v, Ec is about 106 N/C.
in terms of t, E, and its mass and charge m and √ See problem ?? for a note on how recent re-
q. search affects this estimate.
(b) If this is done with two different objects
and they are observed to have the same motion,
what can you conclude about their masses and
charges? (For instance, when radioactivity was
discovered, it was found that one form of it had
the same motion as an electron in this type of
experiment.)

14-d2 Three charges are arranged on a square

as shown. All three charges are positive. What
value of q2 /q1 will produce zero electric field at Problem 14-d3.
the center of the square? √

14-d3 In an electrical storm, the cloud and 14-d4 The figure shows cross-sectional views
the ground act like a parallel-plate capacitor, of two cubical capacitors, and a cross-sectional
which typically charges up due to frictional elec- view of the same two capacitors put together so
tricity in collisions of ice particles in the cold that their interiors coincide. A capacitor with
PROBLEMS 163

the plates close together has a nearly uniform

electric field between the plates, and almost zero
field outside; these capacitors don’t have their
plates very close together compared to the di-
mensions of the plates, but for the purposes of
this problem, assume that they still have approx-
imately the kind of idealized field pattern shown
in the figure. Each capacitor has an interior vol-
ume of 1.00 m3 , and is charged up to the point
where its internal field is 1.00 V/m.
(a) Calculate the energy stored in the electric Problem 14-g2.
field of each capacitor when they are separate. √

(b) Calculate the magnitude of the interior field 14-g3 Find an arrangement of charges that
when the two capacitors are put together in the has zero total charge and zero dipole moment,
manner shown. Ignore effects arising from the but that will make nonvanishing electric fields.
redistribution of each capacitor’s charge under √
the influence of the other capacitor. 14-g4 This is a one-dimensional problem,
(c) Calculate the energy of the put-together con- with everything confined to the x axis. Dipole
figuration. Does assembling them like this re- A consists of a −1.000 C charge at x = 0.000 m
lease energy, consume energy, or neither? √ and a 1.000 C charge at x = 1.000 m. Dipole
B has a −2.000 C charge at x = 0.000 m and a
14-g1 P The definition of the dipole moment, 2.000 C charge at x = 0.500 m.
D = qi ri , involves the vector ri stretching (a) Compare the two dipole moments.
from the origin of our coordinate system out to (b) Calculate the field created by dipole A at
the charge qi . There are clearly cases where this x = 10.000 m, and compare with the field dipole
causes the dipole moment to be dependent on B would make. Comment on the result. √
the choice of coordinate system. For instance, if
there is only one charge, then we could make the 14-g5 A dipole has a midplane, i.e., the plane
dipole moment equal zero if we chose the origin that cuts through the dipole’s center, and is per-
to be right on top of the charge, or nonzero if we pendicular to the dipole’s axis. Consider a two-
put the origin somewhere else. charge dipole made of point charges ±q located
(a) Make up a numerical example with two at z = ±`/2. Use approximations to find the
charges of equal magnitude and opposite sign. field at a distant point in the midplane, and show
Compute the dipole moment using two different that its magnitude comes out to be kD/R3 (half
coordinate systems that are oriented the same what it would be at a point on the axis lying an
way, but differ in the choice of origin. Comment equal distance from the dipole).
on the result.
(b) Generalize the result of part a to any pair of 14-j1 Astronomers believe that the mass dis-
charges with equal magnitude and opposite sign. tribution (mass per unit volume) of some galax-
This is supposed to be a proof for any arrange- ies may be approximated, in spherical coordi-
ment of the two charges, so don’t assume any nates, by ρ = ae−br , for 0 ≤ r ≤ ∞, where ρ is
numbers. the density. Find the total mass. √
(c) Generalize further, to n charges.
14-j2 A hydrogen atom in a particular state
14-g2 Compare the two dipole moments. has the charge density (charge per unit volume)
164 CHAPTER 14. ELECTRICAL INTERACTIONS

of the electron cloud given by ρ = ae−br z 2 , where

r is the distance from the proton, and z is the co-
ordinate measured along the z axis. Given that
the total charge of the electron cloud must be
−e, find a in terms of the other variables. √
Problem 14-j4.
14-j3 (a) A rod of length L is uniformly
charged with charge Q. It can be shown by
integration that the field at a point lying in
integral diverge at small distances, at large
the midplane h of the rod ati a distance R is
p distances, or both?
E = kλL/ R2 1 + L2 /4R2 , where λ is the (b) Now calculate the energy in the electric
charge per unit length. Starting from this field of a uniformly charged sphere with radius
result, take the limit as the length of the rod b. Based on the shell theorem, it can be shown
approaches infinity. Note that λ is not changing, that the field for r > b is the same as for a point
so as L gets bigger, the total charge Q increases. charge, while the field for r < b is kqr/b3 . (Ex-
ample ?? shows this using a different technique.)
(b) It can be shown that the field of an infinite,
uniformly charged plane is 2πkσ. Now you’re Remark: The calculation in part a seems to show that
infinite energy would be required in order to create a
going to rederive the same result by a different
charged, pointlike particle. However, there are processes
method. Suppose that it is the x − y plane that that, for example, create electron-positron pairs, and
is charged, and we want to find the field at the these processes don’t require infinite energy. According
point (0, 0, z). (Since the plane is infinite, there to Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2 , the energy re-
quired to create such a pair should only be 2mc2 , which
is no loss of generality in assuming x = 0 and is finite. √
y = 0.) Imagine that we slice the plane into an
infinite number of straight strips parallel to the y
14-j6 (a) A rod of length L is uniformly
axis. Each strip has infinitesimal width dx, and
charged with charge Q. It can be shown by in-
extends from x to x + dx. The contribution any
tegration that the field at a point lying in the
one of these strips to the field at our point has a
midplane of the rod ati a distance R is E =
magnitude which can be found from part a. By h p
2
vector addition, prove the desired result for the kλL/ R 1 + L2 /4R2 , where λ is the charge
field of the plane of charge. per unit length. Show that this field reduces to
E = 2kλ/R in the limit of L → ∞.
14-j4 Consider the electric field created by (b) An infinite strip of width b has a surface
a uniformly charged cylindrical surface that ex- charge density σ. Find the field at a point at
tends to infinity in one direction. a distance z from the strip, lying in the plane √
(a) Show that the field at the center of the cylin- perpendicularly bisecting the strip.
der’s mouth is 2πkσ, which happens to be the (c) Show that this expression has the correct be-
same as the field of an infinite flat sheet of havior in the limit where z approaches zero, and
charge! also in the limit of z b. For the latter, you’ll
(b) This expression is independent of the radius need the result of problem 14-j3a, which is given
of the cylinder. Explain why this should be so. on page ??.
For example, what would happen if you doubled
the cylinder’s radius? 14-j7 A solid cylinder of radius b and length `
is uniformly charged with a total charge Q. Find
14-j5 (a) Show that the energy in the electric the electric field at a point at the center of one
field of a point charge is infinite! Does the of the flat ends.
PROBLEMS 165

√
the same form as the one in problem ??.)
(b) Check that your answer makes sense on the
axis.
(c) Check that the units of your answer make
Problem 14-j6. sense.

14-m7 In a certain region of space, the elec-

tric field is constant (i.e., the vector always has
the same magnitude and direction). For simplic-
14-m1 A sphere of radius b contains a uni- ity, assume that the field points in the positive
form charge density ρ. Use Gauss’s law to find x direction. (a) Use Gauss’s law to prove that
the electric field at radius r ≤ b, and verify that there is no charge in this region of space. This is
the result is the same as the one obtained using most easily done by considering a Gaussian sur-
Newton’s shell theorem for gravity. Problem by face consisting of a rectangular box, whose edges
P. Widmann. √ are parallel to the x, y, and z axes.
(b) If there are no charges in this region of space,
14-m2 A spherical shell of uniform charge what could be making this electric field?
density ρ extends from r = a to r = b. Find the
field in the regions r ≤ a, a ≤ r ≤ b, and r ≥ b.
14-m8 (a) In a certain region of space, the
Problem by P. Widmann. √ electric field is given by E = bxx̂, where b is a
constant. Find the amount of charge contained
14-m3 A piece of metal contains a hollow within a cubical volume extending from x = 0 to
spherical cavity of radius a, and at the center of x = a, from y = 0 to y = a, and from z = 0 to
this cavity is a point charge q. Find the charge z = a.
density on the inner surface of the cavity. Prob- (b) Repeat for E = bxẑ.
lem by P. Widmann. √ (c) Repeat for E = 13bzẑ − 7cz ŷ.
(d) Repeat for E = bxzẑ.
14-m4 An infinite, uniform slab of charge
with density ρ extends from x = 0 to x = h. 14-m9 Light is a wave made of electric and
The distant field on the left is zero. Find the magnetic fields, and the fields are perpendicular
field in the three regions x ≤ 0, 0 ≤ x ≤ h, and to the direction of the wave’s motion, i.e., they’re
h ≤ x. Problem by P. Widmann. √ transverse. An example would be the electric
field given by E = bx̂ sin cz, where b and c are
14-m5 Assume the earth is an infinite flat constants. (There would also be an associated
sheet, as some persons claim. Flat-earth cos- magnetic field.) We observe that light can travel
mologies often omit any description of what’s on through a vacuum, so we expect that this wave
the flip side, so let’s assume that the gravita- pattern is consistent with the nonexistence of any
tional field is zero there. If the density of the charge in the space it’s currently occupying. Use
earth is 4 g/cm3 , find the thickness that the earth Gauss’s law to prove that this is true.
must have in order to give g = 9.8 m/s2 on our
side. Problem by P. Widmann. √ 14-m10 An electric field is given in cylindrical
coordinates (R, φ, z) by ER = ce−u|z| R−1 cos2 φ,
14-m6 (a) Use Gauss’ law to find the field where the notation ER indicates the component
inside an infinite cylinder with radius b and uni- of the field pointing directly away from the axis,
form charge density ρ. (The external field has and the components in the other directions are
166 CHAPTER 14. ELECTRICAL INTERACTIONS

zero. (This isn’t a completely impossible ex-

pression for the field near a radio transmitting
antenna.) (a) Find the total charge enclosed
within the infinitely long cylinder extending from
the axis out to R = b. (b) Interpret the R-
dependence of your answer to part a.

14-m11 An electron in an atom acts like a

probability cloud surrounding the nucleus. For
a hydrogen atom in its lowest-energy state, the
probability falls off exponentially, so we can
mock this up with a charge density ρ = ρ0 e−r/a ,
where r is the distance from the nucleus, and
ρ0 and a are constants. Find the electric field.
Problem by P. Widmann. √
15 The electric potential
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems (involving the gradient operator ∇) and
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although Z
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
∆V = − E · dx
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- (in terms of a path integral). In electrostatics,
pose of the summary is to show what material is the path integral in the latter equation is inde-
needed in order to do the problems, and to show pendent of the path taken.
what terminology and notation are being used. Since the field of a charge distribution depends
additively upon the charges, the same is true of
the potential. Given a continuous charge distri-
15.1 The electric potential bution, it is sometimes easier to find the poten-
tial by integration than the field, since the po-
When a test charge q is at a particular posi- tential is a scalar. Having found the potential,
tion in a static electric field, it has an electri- one can always take the gradient to find the field.
cal potential energy U . The electrical poten-
tial energy per unit charge, U/q, is called the
electric potential, notated V , ϕ, or Φ, and mea- 15.2 Capacitance
sured in units of volts, V. Because it is defined
in terms of a potential energy, the electric poten-
A capacitor is a device that stores energy in
tial is only defined up to an additive constant.
an electric field. The simplest example con-
In the context of an electric circuit, we often use
sists of two parallel conducting plates. The en-
the synonym “voltage” for the electric potential.
ergy is proportional to the square of the field
Voltage differences are measured by a voltmeter,
strength, which is proportional to the charges on
which reads the difference in potential between
the plates. If we assume the plates carry charges
its two probes. A voltmeter is wired in parallel
that are the same in magnitude, +q and −q, then
with a circuit, and an ideal voltmeter acts like
the energy stored in the capacitor must be pro-
a perfect insulator, so that no charge ever flows
portional to q 2 . For historical reasons, we write
through it.
the constant of proportionality as 1/2C,
In one dimension, the electric field and electric
potential are related by 1 2
E= q .
dV 2C
E=− ,
dx The constant C is a geometrical property of
or equivalently, via the fundamental theorem of the capacitor, called its capacitance. Based on
calculus, this definition, the units of capacitance must
be coulombs squared per joule, and this com-
Z x2 bination is more conveniently abbreviated as the
V (x2 ) − V (x1 ) = − E dx. farad, 1 F = 1 C2 /J.
x1
Voltage is electrical potential energy per unit
Generalizing to three dimensions, charge, so the voltage difference across a capaci-
tor is related to the amount by which its energy
E = −∇V would increase if we increased the absolute val-

167
168 CHAPTER 15. THE ELECTRIC POTENTIAL

ues of the charges on the plates from q to q + ∆q: When a capacitor has the space between its
electrodes filled with a dielectric, its capacitance
V = (Eq+∆q − Eq )/∆q is increased by the factor /0 .
At a boundary between two different materi-

∆ 1 2
= q als, if there is no free charge at the boundary,
∆q 2C
q the components of the fields D⊥ and Ek are con-
= tinuous.
C
Many books use this as the definition of capac-
itance. It follows from this relation that capac- 15.4 Poisson’s equation and
itances in parallel add, Cequivalent = C1 + C2 ,
whereas when they are wired in series, it is their
Laplace’s equation
−1 −1 −1
inverses that add, Cequivalent = C1 + C2 . Gauss’s law, div E = 4πkρ, can also be stated in
terms of the potential. Since E = ∇V , we have
div ∇V = 4πkρ. If we work out the combination
15.3 Dielectrics of operators div ∇ in a Cartesian coordinate sys-
tem, we get ∂ 2 /∂x2 + ∂ 2 /∂y 2 + ∂ 2 /∂z 2 , which
Many electrically insulating materials fall into a is called the Laplacian and notated ∇2 . The
category known as dielectrics. Such materials version of Gauss’s law written in terms of the
can be modeled as containing many microscopic potential,
dipoles (molecules) that are randomly oriented
∇2 V = 4πkρ,
but can become aligned when subjected to an
external field. When we apply Gauss’s law to a is called Poisson’s equation, while in the special
region of space in which a dielectric is present, case of a vacuum, with ρ = 0, we have
the charge can have contributions both from free
charges (such as the ones that flow in a circuit) ∇2 V = 0,
measurable with measuring devices such as am-
meters, but also from the bound, microscopic known as Laplace’s equation. Many problems
charges inside the dipoles. It can therefore be in electrostatics can be stated in terms of find-
useful to rewrite Gauss’s law as ing potential that satisfies Laplace’s equation,
usually with some set of boundary conditions.
ΦD = qfree , For example, if an infinite parallel-plate capac-
itor has plates parallel to the x-y plane at cer-
where tain given potentials, then these plates form a
D = E. boundary for the region between the plates, and
Laplace’s equation has a solution in this region
When the field is constant over time and not of the form V = az + b. It’s easy to verify that
too strong, is approximately constant, and is this is a solution of Laplace’s equation, since all
a property of the material called its permittiv- three of the partial derivatives vanish.
ity. In a vacuum, = 1/4πk, referred to as 0 ,
while a dielectric has > 0 . With time-varying
fields, most materials have permittivities that 15.5 The method of images
are highly frequency-dependent. For materials
such as crystals, which have special directions A car’s radio antenna is usually in the form of
defined by the regular atomic lattice, cannot a whip sticking up above its metal roof. This
be modeled as a scalar, and the relation between is an example involving radio waves, which are
D and E becomes more complicated. time-varying electric and magnetic fields, but a
15.5. THE METHOD OF IMAGES 169

similar, simpler electrostatic example is the fol-

lowing. Suppose that we position a charge q > 0
at a distance ` from a conducting plane. What
is the resulting electric field? The conductor has
charges that are free to move, and due to the field
of the charge q, we will end up with a net concen-
tration of negative charge in the part of the plane
near q. The field in the vacuum surrounding q
will be a sum of fields due to q and fields due
to these charges in the conducting plane. The
problem can be stated as that of finding a so-
lution to Poisson’s equation with the boundary
condition that V = 0 at the conducting plane.
Figure 15.1/1 shows the kind of field lines we
expect.

Figure 15.1: The method of images.

This looks like a very complicated problem,

but there is trick that allows us to find a sim-
ple solution. We can convert the problem into
an equivalent one in which the conductor isn’t
present, but a fictitious image charge −q is
placed at an equal distance behind the plane,
like a reflection in a mirror, as in figure 15.1/2.
The field is then simply the sum of the fields of
the charges q and −q, so we can either add the
field vectors or add the potentials. By symmetry,
the field lines are perpendicular to the plane, so
the plane is an surface of constant potential, as
required.
170 CHAPTER 15. THE ELECTRIC POTENTIAL

Problems 15-a3 The neuron in the figure has been

drawn fairly short, but some neurons in your
15-a1 The gap between the electrodes in an spinal cord have tails (axons) up to a meter long.
automobile engine’s spark plug is 0.060 cm. To The inner and outer surfaces of the membrane
produce an electric spark in a gasoline-air mix- act as the “plates” of a capacitor. (The fact that
ture, an electric field of 3.0 × 106 V/m must be it has been rolled up into a cylinder has very
achieved. On starting a car, what minimum volt- little effect.) In order to function, the neuron
age must be supplied by the ignition circuit? As- must create a voltage difference V between the
√
sume the field is uniform. inner and outer surfaces of the membrane. Let
(b) The small size of the gap between the elec- the membrane’s thickness, radius, and length be
trodes is inconvenient because it can get blocked t, r, and L. (a) Calculate the energy that must
easily, and special tools are needed to measure it. be stored in the electric field for the neuron to do
Why don’t they design spark plugs with a wider its job. (In real life, the membrane is made out
gap? of a substance called a dielectric, whose electri-
cal properties increase the amount of energy that
15-a2 In our by-now-familiar neuron, the must be stored. For the sake of this analysis, ig- √
voltage difference between the inner and outer nore this fact.)
surfaces of the cell membrane is about Vout − (b) An organism’s evolutionary fitness should be
Vin = −70 mV in the resting state, and the thick- better if it needs less energy to operate its ner-
ness of the membrane is about 6.0 nm (i.e., only vous system. Based on your answer to part a,
about a hundred atoms thick). What is the elec- what would you expect evolution to do to the di-
tric field inside the membrane? mensions t and r? What other constraints would
√ keep these evolutionary trends from going too
far?

15-a4 The figure shows a simplified diagram

of an electron gun such as the one that creates
the electron beam in a TV tube. Electrons that
spontaneously emerge from the negative elec-
trode (cathode) are then accelerated to the posi-
tive electrode, which has a hole in it. (Once they
emerge through the hole, they will slow down.
However, if the two electrodes are fairly close
together, this slowing down is a small effect, be-
cause the attractive and repulsive forces experi-
enced by the electron tend to cancel.)
(a) If the voltage difference between the elec-
trodes is ∆V , what is the velocity of an electron
as it emerges at B? Assume that its initial ve-
locity, at A, is negligible, and that the velocity
is nonrelativistic. (If you haven’t read ch. 7 yet,
don’t worry about the remark about relativity.) √
Problem 15-a2.
(b) Evaluate your expression numerically for the
case where ∆V =10 kV, and compare to the
PROBLEMS 171

speed of light. If you’ve read ch. 7 already, com- (c) In the setup described in part b, we need a
ment on whether the assumption of nonrelativis- target containing atoms whose nuclei are single
tic motion was justified.√ protons, i.e., a target made of hydrogen. Since
. Solution, p. 238 hydrogen is a gas, and we want a foil for our
target, we have to use a hydrogen compound,
15-a5 The figure shows a simplified diagram
such as a plastic. Discuss what effect this would
of a device called a tandem accelerator, used for
have on the experiment.
accelerating beams of ions up to speeds on the
order of 1-10% of the speed of light. (Since these
velocities are not too big compared to c, you can
use nonrelativistic physics throughout this prob-
lem.) The nuclei of these ions collide with the
nuclei of atoms in a target, producing nuclear
reactions for experiments studying the structure
of nuclei. The outer shell of the accelerator is Problem 15-a5.
a conductor at zero voltage (i.e., the same volt-
age as the Earth). The electrode at the cen-
ter, known as the “terminal,” is at a high posi- 15-d1 A hydrogen atom is electrically neu-
tive voltage, perhaps millions of volts. Negative tral, so at large distances, we expect that it will
ions with a charge of −1 unit (i.e., atoms with create essentially zero electric field. This is not
one extra electron) are produced offstage on the true, however, near the atom or inside it. Very
right, typically by chemical reactions with ce- close to the proton, for example, the field is very
sium, which is a chemical element that has a strong. To see this, think of the electron as a
strong tendency to give away electrons. Rela- spherically symmetric cloud that surrounds the
tively weak electric and magnetic forces are used proton, getting thinner and thinner as we get
to transport these −1 ions into the accelerator, farther away from the proton. (Quantum me-
where they are attracted to the terminal. Al- chanics tells us that this is a more correct pic-
though the center of the terminal has a hole in it ture than trying to imagine the electron orbiting
to let the ions pass through, there is a very thin the proton.) Near the center of the atom, the
carbon foil there that they must physically pen- electron cloud’s field cancels out by symmetry,
etrate. Passing through the foil strips off some but the proton’s field is strong, so the total field
number of electrons, changing the atom into a is very strong. The potential in and around the
positive ion, with a charge of +n times the funda- hydrogen atom can be approximated using an
mental charge. Now that the atom is positive, it expression of the form V = r−1 e−r . (The units
is repelled by the terminal, and accelerates some come out wrong, because I’ve left out some con-
more on its way out of the accelerator. stants.) Find the electric field corresponding to
(a) Find the velocity, v, of the emerging beam this potential, and comment on its behavior at
of positive ions, in terms of n, their mass m, the very large and very small r.
terminal voltage V , and fundamental constants. . Solution, p. 238
Neglect the small change in mass caused by the √
loss of electrons in the stripper foil. 15-d2 (a) Given that the on-axis field of a
dipole at large distances is proportional to D/r3 ,
(b) To fuse protons with protons, a minimum show that its potential varies as D/r2 . (Ignore
beam velocity of about 11% of the speed of light positive and negative signs and numerical con-
is required. What terminal voltage would be √
stants of proportionality.)
needed in this case? (b) Write down an exact expression for the po-
tential of a two-charge dipole at an on-axis point,
172 CHAPTER 15. THE ELECTRIC POTENTIAL

without assuming that the distance is large com- of the four points on the surfaces that are closest
pared to the size of the dipole. Your expression to the central axis.) There is no obvious, pedes-
will have to contain the actual charges and size of trian way to determine the field or potential in
the dipole, not just its dipole moment. Now use the central vacuum region, but there’s a trick
approximations to show that, at large distances, that works: with a little mathematical insight,
this is consistent with your answer to part a. we see that the potential V = Vo b−2 xy is consis-
tent with all the given information. (Mathemati-
15-d3 A carbon dioxide molecule is struc- cians could prove that this solution was unique,
tured like O-C-O, with all three atoms along a but a physicist knows it on physical grounds: if
line. The oxygen atoms grab a little bit of ex- there were two different solutions, there would be
tra negative charge, leaving the carbon positive. no physical way for the system to decide which
The molecule’s symmetry, however, means that one to do!)
it has no overall dipole moment, unlike a V- (a) Find the field in the vacuum region.
shaped water molecule, for instance. Whereas (b) Sketch the field as a “sea of arrows.” √
the potential of a dipole of magnitude D is
proportional to D/r2 , (see problem 15-d2), it
turns out that the potential of a carbon dioxide
molecule at a distant point along the molecule’s
axis equals b/r3 , where r is the distance from the
molecule and b is a constant (cf. problem 14-g3).
What would be the electric field of a carbon diox-
ide molecule at a point on the molecule’s axis, at
a distance r from the molecule? √

15-d4 A proton is in a region in which the

electric field is given by E = a + bx3 . If the
proton starts at rest at x1 = 0, find its speed, v,
when it reaches position x2 . Give your answer in
terms of a, b, x2 , and e and m, the charge and Problem 15-g1.
mass of the proton. √

15-g1 The figure shows a vacuum chamber 15-g2 (a) A certain region of three-
surrounded by four metal electrodes shaped like dimensional space has a potential that varies as
hyperbolas. (Yes, physicists do sometimes ask V = br2 , where r is the distance from the origin.
√
their university machine shops for things ma- Find the field.
chined in mathematical shapes like this. They (b) Write down another potential that gives ex-
have to be made on computer-controlled mills.) actly the same field.
We assume that the electrodes extend far into
and out of the page along the unseen z axis,
so that by symmetry, the electric fields are the 15-j1 Find the capacitance of the surface of
same for all z. The problem is therefore effec- the earth, assuming there is an outer spherical
tively two-dimensional. Two of the electrodes “plate” at infinity. (In reality, this outer plate
are at voltage +Vo , and the other two at −Vo , as would just represent some distant part of the
shown. The equations of the hyperbolic surfaces universe to which we carried away some of the
are |xy| = b2 , where b is a constant. (We can in- earth’s charge in order to charge up the earth.)
√
terpret b as giving the locations x = ±b, y = ±b
PROBLEMS 173

15-j2 Find the energy stored in a capacitor (a) Determine as much as possible about the
in terms of its capacitance and the voltage dif- form of the answer based on units.
ference across it. √
(b) Find the full result for θ.

15-j3 A capacitor has parallel plates of area

A, separated by a distance h. If there is a vac-
uum between the plates, then Gauss’s law gives
E = 4πkσ = 4πkq/A for the field between the
plates, and combining this with E = V /h, we
find C = q/V = (1/4πk)A/h. (a) Generalize
this derivation to the case where there is a di-
electric between the plates. (b) Suppose we have
a list of possible materials we could choose as
dielectrics, and we wish to construct a capacitor
that will have the highest possible energy den-
sity, Ue /v, where v is the volume. For each di-
electric, we know its permittivity , and also the
maximum electric field E it can sustain without
breaking down and allowing sparks to cross be-
tween the plates. Write the maximum energy
density in terms of these two variables, and de-
termine a figure of merit that could be used to
decide which material would be the best choice.

15-m1 A charged particle of mass m and

charge q is below a horizontal conducting plane.
We wish to find the distance ` between the par-
ticle and the plane so that the particle will be in
equilibrium, with its weight supported by elec-
trostatic forces.
(a) Determine as much as possible about the Problem 15-m2.
form of the answer based on units.
(b) Find the full result for `.
(c) Show that the equilibrium is unstable.

15-m2 A point charge q is situated in the

empty space inside a corner formed by two per-
pendicular half-planes made of sheets of metal.
Let the sheets lie in the y-z and x-z planes, so
that the charge’s distances from the planes are
x and y. Both x and y are positive. The charge
will accelerate due to the electrostatic forces
exerted by the sheets. We wish to find the
direction θ in which it will accelerate, expressed
as an angle counterclockwise from the negative
x axis, so that 0 < θ < π/2.
174 CHAPTER 15. THE ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
16 Circuits
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems Despite the name, Ohm’s law is not a law of na-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although ture, and it is often violated. Some substances,
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- such as gases, never obey Ohm’s law; we say that
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is they are not “ohmic.” The units of resistance are
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to abbreviated as ohms, 1 Ω = 1 V/A.
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- Resistances in series add, Requivalent = R1 +
−1
pose of the summary is to show what material is R2 , while in parallel Requivalent = R1−1 + R2−1 .
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.
16.3 The loop and junction
rules
16.1 Current
Kirchoff’s junction rule is a statement of conser-
Electric current is defined as the rate of flow of vation of charge. It says that the sum of the
charge through a boundary, I = dq/ dt. Its units currents flowing into any junction in a circuit
of coulombs/second are more conveniently ab- must be zero (if the junction has no way to store
breviated as amperes, 1 A=1 C/s. Current is charge).
measured by an ammeter, which allows current Kirchoff’s loop rule is a statement of conser-
to flow through itself. An ammeter is wired in vation of energy. For any loop in a circuit, the
series with a circuit, which requires breaking the sum of the voltage drops must be zero.
circuit in order to insert the meter. An ideal
ammeter acts like a perfect conductor.
The power dissipated, transformed, or released
in an electric circuit element is given by P =
I∆V .

16.2 Resistance
Current will not flow at all through a perfect in-
sulator. When a material is neither a perfect
insulator nor a perfect insulator, then current
can flow through it, and the result in terms of
energy is that electrical energy is transformed
into heat. For many materials, under some fairly
large range of electric fields, the density of cur-
rent is proportional to the electric field. When a
two-terminal device is formed from such a mate-
rial, and a voltage difference is applied across it,
then the current flowing through it is given by
Ohm’s law, I = ∆V /R, where R, called the resis-
tance, depends on both the geometry of the de-
vice and the material of which it is constructed.

175
176 CHAPTER 16. CIRCUITS

Problems definite radii. If the electron is imagined as cir-

cling around the proton at a speed of 2.2 × 106
16-a1 In a wire carrying a current of 1.0 pA, m/s, in an orbit with a radius of 0.05 nm, what
how long do you have to wait, on the average, for electric current is created? √
the next electron to pass a given point? Express
your answer in units of microseconds.
. Solution, p. 238
16-a2 Referring back to our old friend the
neuron from problem 14-a1 on page 160, let’s
now consider what happens when the nerve is
stimulated to transmit information. When the
blob at the top (the cell body) is stimulated,
it causes Na+ ions to rush into the top of the Problem 16-a4.
tail (axon). This electrical pulse will then travel
down the axon, like a flame burning down from
the end of a fuse, with the Na+ ions at each 16-a5 A silk thread is uniformly charged
point first going out and then coming back in. by rubbing it with llama fur. The thread is
If 1010 Na+ ions cross the cell membrane in 0.5 then dangled vertically above a metal plate and
ms, what amount of current is created? √ released. As each part of the thread makes
contact with the conducting plate, its charge is
deposited onto the plate. Since the thread is
accelerating due to gravity, the rate of charge
deposition increases with time, and by time t
the cumulative amount of charge is q = ct2 ,
where c is a constant. (a) Find the current √
flowing onto the plate.
(b) Suppose that the charge is immediately
Problem 16-a2. carried away through a resistance R. Find the √
power dissipated as heat.

16-a3 Lightning discharges a cloud during an

electrical storm. Suppose that the current in the
lightning bolt varies with time as I = bt, where 16-a6 In AM (amplitude-modulated) radio,
b is a constant. Find the cloud’s charge as a an audio signal f (t) is multiplied by a sine wave
function of time. sin ωt in the megahertz frequency range. For
√
simplicity, let’s imagine that the transmitting
antenna is a whip, and that charge goes back
16-a4 (a) You take an LP record out of its
and forth between the top and bottom. Suppose
sleeve, and it acquires a static charge of 1 nC.
1 that, during a certain time interval, the audio
You play it at the normal speed of 33 3 r.p.m.,
signal varies linearly with time, giving a charge
and the charge moving in a circle creates an elec-
q = (a + bt) sin ωt at the top of the whip and −q
tric current. What is the current, in amperes? √ at the bottom. Find the current as a function of

time.
(b) Although the planetary model of the atom √
can be made to work with any value for the ra-
dius of the electrons’ orbits, more advanced mod- 16-d1 If a typical light bulb draws about 900
els that we will study later in this course predict mA from a 110 V household circuit, what is its
PROBLEMS 177

resistance? (Don’t worry about the fact that it’s 16-g1 You are given a battery, a flashlight
alternating current.) √
bulb, and a single piece of wire. Draw at least
two configurations of these items that would re-
16-d2 (a) Express the power dissipated by a sult in lighting up the bulb, and at least two that
resistor in terms of R and ∆V only, eliminating would not light it. (Don’t draw schematics.) If
√
I. you’re not sure what’s going on, borrow the ma-
(b) Electrical receptacles in your home are terials from your instructor and try it. Note that
mostly 110 V, but circuits for electric stoves, air the bulb has two electrical contacts: one is the
conditioners, and washers and driers are usually threaded metal jacket, and the other is the tip (at
220 V. The two types of circuits have differently the bottom in the figure). [Problem by Arnold
shaped receptacles. Suppose you rewire the plug Arons.]
of a drier so that it can be plugged in to a 110 V
receptacle. The resistor that forms the heating
element of the drier would normally draw 200 W.
How much power does it actually draw now? √

16-d3 A resistor has a voltage difference ∆V

across it, causing a current I to flow.
(a) Find an equation for the power it dissipates
as heat in terms of the variables I and R only, √
eliminating ∆V . Problem 16-g1.
(b) If an electrical line coming to your house
is to carry a given amount of current, interpret
your equation from part a to explain whether the 16-g2 You have to do different things with
wire’s resistance should be small, or large. a circuit to measure current than to measure a
voltage difference. Which would be more practi-
16-d4 We have referred to resistors dissipat- cal for a printed circuit board, in which the wires
ing heat, i.e., we have assumed that P = I∆V are actually strips of metal embedded inside the
is always greater than zero. Could I∆V come board?
out to be negative for a resistor? If so, could . Solution, p. 238
one make a refrigerator by hooking up a resistor
in such a way that it absorbed heat instead of
dissipating it?

16-d5 What resistance values can be created

by combining a 1 kΩ resistor and a 10 kΩ resis-
tor?
. Solution, p. 238
16-d6 Wire is sold in a series of standard Problem 16-g2.
diameters, called “gauges.” The difference in di-
ameter between one gauge and the next in the
series is about 20%. How would the resistance 16-g3 The figure shows a circuit containing
of a given length of wire compare with the re- five lightbulbs connected to a battery. Suppose
sistance of the same length of wire in the next you’re going to connect one probe of a voltmeter
gauge in the series? √ to the circuit at the point marked with a dot.
How many unique, nonzero voltage differences
178 CHAPTER 16. CIRCUITS

could you measure by connecting the other probe

to other wires in the circuit?

Problem 16-g5.

cerebral eraser to come within 20 cm of your

head.) Connect a voltmeter to measure the volt-
age across the cerebral eraser, and also insert
an ammeter in the circuit so that you can make
Problems 16-g3 and 16-g4.
sure you don’t put more than 100 mA through
the neural depolarizer.” The diagrams show two
lab groups’ attempts to follow the instructions.
16-g4 The lightbulbs in the figure are all iden-
(a) Translate diagram a into a standard-style
tical. If you were inserting an ammeter at various
schematic. What is correct and incorrect about
places in the circuit, how many unique currents
this group’s setup? (b) Do the same for diagram
could you measure? If you know that the current
b.
measurement will give the same number in more
than one place, only count that as one unique
current.
16-g7 A 1.0 Ω toaster and a 2.0 Ω lamp are
16-g5 In the figure, the battery is 9 V. connected in parallel with the 110-V supply of
(a) What are the voltage differences across each your house. (Ignore the fact that the voltage is
√
light bulb? AC rather than DC.)
(b) What current flows through each of the three (a) Draw a schematic of the circuit.
√
components of the circuit? (b) For each of the three components in the cir-
(c) If a new wire is added to connect points A and cuit, find the current passing through it and the
√
B, how will the appearances of the bulbs change? voltage drop across it.
What will be the new voltages and currents? (c) Suppose they were instead hooked up in se-
(d) Suppose no wire is connected from A to B, ries. Draw a schematic and calculate the same
but the two bulbs are switched. How will the things. √
results compare with the results from the original
setup as drawn?
16-g8 The heating element of an electric stove
16-g6 A student in a biology lab is given is connected in series with a switch that opens
the following instructions: “Connect the cerebral and closes many times per second. When you
eraser (C.E.) and the neural depolarizer (N.D.) turn the knob up for more power, the fraction
in parallel with the power supply (P.S.). (Un- of the time that the switch is closed increases.
der no circumstances should you ever allow the Suppose someone suggests a simpler alternative
PROBLEMS 179

(d) What if the voltages in the parallel circuit

were equal?

16-g10 How many different resistance values

can be created by combining three unequal resis-
tors? (Don’t count possibilities in which not all
the resistors are used, i.e., ones in which there is
zero current in one or more of them.)

16-g11 Suppose six identical resistors, each

with resistance R, are connected so that they
form the edges of a tetrahedron (a pyramid with
three sides in addition to the base, i.e., one less
side than an Egyptian pyramid). What resis-
tance value or values can be obtained by making
connections onto any two points on this arrange-
ment?
. Solution, p. 238
16-g12 A person in a rural area who has no
electricity runs an extremely long extension cord
Problem 16-g6. to a friend’s house down the road so she can run
an electric light. The cord is so long that its
resistance, x, is not negligible. Show that the
lamp’s brightness is greatest if its resistance, y,
for controlling the power by putting the heat- is equal to x. Explain physically why the lamp
ing element in series with a variable resistor con- is dim for values of y that are too small or too
trolled by the knob. (With the knob turned all large.
the way clockwise, the variable resistor’s resis-
tance is nearly zero, and when it’s all the way
16-g13 All three resistors have the same re-
counterclockwise, its resistance is essentially in-
sistance, R. Find the three unknown currents in
finite.) (a) Draw schematics. (b) Why would the
terms of V1 , V2 , and R. √
simpler design be undesirable?

16-g9 You have a circuit consisting of two

unknown resistors in series, and a second circuit
consisting of two unknown resistors in parallel.
(a) What, if anything, would you learn about the
resistors in the series circuit by finding that the
currents through them were equal?
(b) What if you found out the voltage differ- Problem 16-g13.
ences across the resistors in the series circuit were
equal?
(c) What would you learn about the resistors in 16-g14 The figure shows two possible ways of
the parallel circuit from knowing that the cur- wiring a flashlight with a switch. Both will serve
rents were equal? to turn the bulb on and off, although the switch
180 CHAPTER 16. CIRCUITS

functions in the opposite sense. Why is method 16-g17 The bulbs all have unequal resis-
1 preferable? tances. Given the three currents shown in the
figure, find the currents through bulbs A, B, C,
and D. √

Problem 16-g14.

16-g15 The bulbs are all identical. Which Problem 16-g17.

one doesn’t light up?

16-g18 It’s fairly common in electrical cir-

cuits for additional, undesirable resistances to
occur because of factors such as dirty, corroded,
or loose connections. Suppose that a device with
resistance R normally dissipates power P , but
due to an additional series resistance r the total
power is reduced to P 0 . We might, for example,
detect this change because the battery powering
our device ran down more slowly than normal.√
Problem 16-g15. (a) Find the unknown resistance r.
(b) Check that the units of your result make
sense.
16-g16 Each bulb has a resistance of one (c) Check that your result makes sense in the
0 0
ohm. How much power is drawn from the one- special cases P = P and P = 0.
0
volt battery? (d) Suppose we redefine P as the useful power
√
dissipated in R. For example, this would be the
change we would notice because a flashlight was
dimmer. Find r. √

16-j1 Suppose a parallel-plate capacitor is

built so that a slab of dielectric material can
be slid in or out. (This is similar to the way a
stud finder works.) We insert the dielectric, hook
the capacitor up to a battery to charge it, and
then use an ammeter and a voltmeter to observe
Problem 16-g16. what happens when the dielectric is withdrawn.
Predict the changes observed on the meters, and
PROBLEMS 181

correlate them with the expected change in ca-

pacitance. Discuss the energy transformations
involved, and determine whether positive or neg-
ative work is done in removing the dielectric.

Problem 16-j1.

16-j2 Repeat problem 16-j1, but with one

change in the procedure: after we charge the ca-
pacitor, we open the circuit, and then continue
with the observations.
182 CHAPTER 16. CIRCUITS
17 Basics of relativity
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

17.1 The Lorentz transfor-

Figure 17.1: The relationship between time and
mation space coordinates in two different frames of ref-
erence, according to Galilean relativity.
There is a saying among biologists that with-
out evolution, nothing in biology makes sense.
Similarly, it is impossible to make sense out of preted correctly by Einstein, is called the Lorentz
electricity and magnetism, beyond simple elec- transformation, figure 17.2.
trostatics and DC circuits, without understand-
ing a few basic ideas about Einstein’s theory of
special relativity.
According to Galileo and Newton, motion is
relative but time is absolute. This theory of time
and space is called Galilean relativity. Accord-
ing to Galilean relativity, observers in different
states of motion will have position and time coor-
dinates that relate to one another in the manner
shown in figure 17.1.
Experiments show that this absoluteness of
time is only an approximation, valid at low
speeds. At high speeds, or with sufficiently pre-
cise experiments, we find that time is relative.
Although this idea dates back to a 1905 paper
by Einstein, and certain types of indirect exper- Figure 17.2: The Lorentz transformation.
imental evidence go back as far as the 19th cen-
tury, modern technology has made it easier to The Lorentz transformation shown in the fig-
demonstrate this in more direct and conceptually ure has a simple symmetry with respect to a flip
simple experiments. In 2010, for example, Chou across the diagonal. This symmetry is present
et al. succeeded in building an atomic clock ac- only when we use units specially adapted to rel-
curate enough to detect an effect at speeds as ativity. In such units, the slope of the 45-degree
low as 10 m/s. The correct relationship between diagonal is a special speed having the value 1,
time and space in different frames of reference, and time and space are measured in the same
proposed mathematically by Lorentz and inter- units. In SI units, this special speed is notated

183
184 CHAPTER 17. BASICS OF RELATIVITY

c, and it has a defined value, equal to approx-

imately 3.0 × 108 m/s. One of the predictions
of relativity is that anything without mass must
move at this speed.
Since light was historically the first example
encountered, c is often referred to as the speed
of light, but relativity tells us that it is better to
think of c as a kind of conversion factor between
space and time.
The speed c has the following fundamentally
important properties. It is the only speed that
observers in different states of motion agree on.
It is the speed at which massless objects always
travel, and it is an ultimate speed limit for mas-
sive objects. It is the maximum speed of propa-
gations for signals or for any mechanism of cause
and effect.
The Lorentz transformation can be expressed
algebraically, although it would be a distraction
to do so here. Its form is determined entirely by
the facts that (1) the slope of the t0 axis is the
velocity of one observer relative to the other, (2)
the main diagonal keeps the same slope, and (3)
the area of the boxes is preserved in the trans-
formation.

17.2 Length contraction and

time dilation
From these facts about the Lorentz transforma-
tion, it can be shown that different observers dis-
agree about lengths
√ and times in the following
way. Let γ = 1/ 1 − v 2 , where v is the velocity
of one observer relative to another. (In SI units,
substitute v/c for v.)
A clock appears to run fastest to an observer
at rest relative to the clock. According to other
observers, the clock’s rate is lower by a factor of
γ.
A meter stick appears longest to an observer at
rest relative to the stick. An observer in motion
parallel to the stick measures the stick to have
been shortened by a factor of γ.
PROBLEMS 185

Problems (a) Calculate the probe’s γ.

(b) Over the course of one year on earth, slightly
17-a1 The figure illustrates a Lorentz trans- less than one year passes on the probe. How
formation using the conventions described in much less? (There are 31 million seconds in a
sec. 17.1, p. 183. For simplicity, the transforma- year.) √
tion chosen is one that lengthens one diagonal
by a factor of 2. Since Lorentz transformations
preserve area, the other diagonal is shortened by
a factor of 2. Let the original frame of refer-
ence, depicted with the square, be A, and the
new one B. (a) By measuring with a ruler on the
figure, show that the velocity of frame B rela-
tive to frame A is 0.6c. (b) Print out a copy of
the page. With a ruler, draw a third parallelo- 17-a5 The earth is orbiting the sun, and
gram that represents a second successive Lorentz therefore is contracted relativistically in the
transformation, one that lengthens the long di- direction of its motion. Compute the amount by
agonal by another factor of 2. Call this third which its diameter shrinks in this direction. √
frame C. Use measurements with a ruler to de-
termine frame C’s velocity relative to frame A.
Does it equal double the velocity found in part
a? Explain why it should be expected to turn
out the way it does. √

17-a2 Astronauts in three different space-

ships are communicating with each other. Those
aboard ships A and B agree on the rate at which
time is passing, but they disagree with the ones
17-a6 (a) Show that for v = (3/5)c, γ comes
on ship C.
out to be a simple fraction.
(a) Alice is aboard ship A. How does she describe
(b) Find another value of v for which γ is a simple
the motion of her own ship, in its frame of refer-
fraction.
ence?
(b) Describe the motion of the other two ships
according to Alice.
(c) Give the description according to Betty,
whose frame of reference is ship B.
(d) Do the same for Cathy, aboard ship C.

17-a3 What happens in the equation for γ

when you put in a negative number for v? Ex-
plain what this means physically, and why it
makes sense.

17-a4 The Voyager 1 space probe, launched in

1977, is moving faster relative to the earth than
any other human-made object, at 17,000 meters
per second.
186 CHAPTER 17. BASICS OF RELATIVITY

Problem 17-a1.
18 Electromagnetism
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

18.1 Electromagnetism
The top panel of figure 18.1 shows a charged par-
ticle moving to the right, parallel to a current
Figure 18.1: A charged particle and a current,
formed by two countermoving lines of opposite
seen in two different frames of reference. The
charge, moving at velocities ±u. The two lines of
second frame is moving at velocity v with respect
charge are drawn offset from each other to make
to the first frame, so all the velocities have v
them easy to distinguish, but we think of them
subtracted from them (approximately).
as coinciding, so that the line is electrically neu-
tral over all, much like a current-carrying cop-
per wire. Based on our knowledge of electro- only known about electrical interactions, relativ-
statics, we would expect the lone charge to feel ity would have compelled us to introduce mag-
zero force, since the neutral “wire” has no elec- netic interactions as well. Relativity unifies the
tric field. electrical and magnetic interactions as two sides
The bottom panel of the figure shows the of the same coin. The unified theory of electric-
same situation in the rest frame of the lone ity and magnetism is called electromagnetism.
charge. Although velocities do not exactly add
and subtract in special relativity as they would
in Galilean relativity (problem 17-a1, p. 185), 18.2 The magnetic field
they approximately do if the velocities are not
too big, so that the velocities of the two lines The magnetic force acting on a charged particle
of charge are approximately u − v and −u − v. is qv × B, where B is the magnetic field. This is
Since the magnitudes of these velocities are un- partly a definition of B and partly a prediction
equal, the length contractions are unequal, and about how the force depends on v. The units
the “wire” is charged, according to an observer of the electric field are N·s/C·m, which can be
in this frame. Therefore the lone charge feels an abbreviated as tesla, 1 T = 1 N·s/C·m.
attractive (downward) electrical force. Empirically, we find that the magnetic field
has no sources or sinks. Gauss’ law for mag-
The descriptions in the two frames of refer-
netism is
ence is inconsistent, so we introduce a force in
ΦB = 0.
the original frame. A moving charge always in-
teracts with other moving charges through such In other words, there are no magnetic
a force, called a magnetic force. Thus if we had monopoles. There are, however, magnetic

187
188 CHAPTER 18. ELECTROMAGNETISM

dipoles. Subatomic particles such as electrons

and neutrons have magnetic dipole moments, as
do some molecules. As a standard of compar-
ison, the magnetic dipole moment m of a loop
of current has magnitude m = IA, and is in
the (right-handed) direction perpendicular to the
loop. The energy of a magnetic dipole in an ex-
ternal magnetic field is −m · B, and the torque
acting on it is m × B.
The energy of the magnetic field is

c2 2
dUm = B dv.
8πk
When a static magnetic field is caused by a
current loop, the Biot-Savart law,
kI d` × r
dB = ,
c2 r3
gives the field when we integrate over the loop.
Ampère’s law is another way of relating static
magnetic fields to the static currents that created
them, and it is more easily extended to nonstatic
fields than is the Biot-Savart law. Ampère’s law
states that the circulation of the magnetic field,
Z
ΓB = B · ds,

around the edge of a surface is related to the

current Ithrough passing through the surface,

4πk
Γ= Ithrough .
c2
PROBLEMS 189

Problems
18-a5 (a) A line charge, with charge per
18-a1 A particle with a charge of 1.0 C and unit length λ, moves at velocity v along its own
a mass of 1.0 kg is observed moving past point length. How much charge passes a given point
P with a velocity (1.0 m/s)x̂. The electric field in time dt? What is the resulting current?
at point P is (1.0 V/m)ŷ, and the magnetic field (b) Show that the units of your answer in part a
is (2.0 T)ŷ. Find the force experienced by the work out correctly.
particle. √ Remark: This constitutes a physical model of an electric
current, and it would be a physically realistic model of
18-a2 For a positively charged particle mov- a beam of particles moving in a vacuum, such as the
electron beam in a television tube. It is not a physically
ing through a magnetic field, the directions of the realistic model of the motion of the electrons in a current-
v, B, and F vectors are related by a right-hand carrying wire, or of the ions in your nervous system; the
rule: motion of the charge carriers in these systems is much
more complicated and chaotic, and there are charges of
both signs, so that the total charge is zero. But even when
v along the fingers, with the hand flat the model is physically unrealistic, it still gives the right
B along the fingers, with the knuckles bent answers when you use it to compute magnetic effects.
This is a remarkable fact, which we will not prove. The
F along the thumb interested reader is referred to E.M. Purcell, Electricity
and Magnetism, McGraw Hill, 1963.
Make a three-dimensional model of the three vec-
tors using pencils or rolled-up pieces of paper to
represent the vectors assembled with their tails 18-a6 Two parallel wires of length L carry
together. Make all three vectors perpendicular currents I1 and I2 . They are separated by a dis-
to each other. Now write down every possi- tance R, and we assume R is much less than L,
ble way in which the rule could be rewritten by so that our results for long, straight wires are ac-
scrambling up the three symbols v, B, and F. curate. The goal of this problem is to compute
Referring to your model, which are correct and the magnetic forces acting between the wires.
which are incorrect? (a) Neither wire can make a force on itself.
Therefore, our first step in computing wire 1’s
force on wire 2 is to find the magnetic field
18-a3 A charged particle is released from rest.
made only by wire 1, in the space occupied by
We see it start to move, and as it gets going, we
wire 2. Express this field in terms of the given
notice that its path starts to curve. Can we tell √
quantities.
whether this region of space has E 6= 0, or B 6= 0,
(b) Let’s model the current in wire 2 by pretend-
or both? Assume that no other forces are present
ing that there is a line charge inside it, possessing
besides the possible electrical and magnetic ones,
density per unit length λ2 and moving at veloc-
and that the fields, if they are present, are uni-
ity v2 . Relate λ2 and v2 to the current I2 , using
form.
the result of problem 18-a5a. Now find the mag-
netic force wire 1 makes on wire 2, in terms of
18-a4 A charged particle is in a region of
I1 , I2 , L, and R.
space in which there is a uniform magnetic field
(c) Show that the units of the answer to part b
B = Bẑ. There is no electric field, and no other
work out to be newtons.
forces act on the particle. In each case, describe
the future motion of the particle, given its initial
velocity. 18-a7 Suppose a charged particle is moving
(a) vo = 0 through a region of space in which there is an
(b) vo = (1 m/s)ẑ electric field perpendicular to its velocity vec-
(c) vo = (1 m/s)ŷ tor, and also a magnetic field perpendicular to
190 CHAPTER 18. ELECTROMAGNETISM

both the particle’s velocity vector and the elec- agree with Newton’s third law?
tric field. Show that there will be one particu- (d) What would happen if wire 1’s current was
lar velocity at which the particle can be moving in the opposite direction compared to wire 2’s?
that results in a total force of zero on it; this
requires that you analyze both the magnitudes 18-a11 (a) In the photo, magnetic forces
and the directions of the forces compared to one cause a beam of electrons to move in a circle.
another. Relate this velocity to the magnitudes The beam is created in a vacuum tube, in which
of the electric and magnetic fields. (Such an ar- a small amount of hydrogen gas has been left. A
rangement, called a velocity filter, is one way of few of the electrons strike hydrogen molecules,
determining the speed of an unknown particle.) creating light and letting us see the beam. A
magnetic field is produced by passing a current
18-a8 The following data give the results of (meter) through the circular coils of wire in front
two experiments in which charged particles were of and behind the tube. In the bottom figure,
released from the same point in space, and the with the magnetic field turned on, the force per-
forces on them were measured: pendicular to the electrons’ direction of motion
q1 = 1 µC , q2 = −2 µC ,
causes them to move in a circle. infer the di-
v1 = (1 m/s)x̂ , v2 = (−1 m/s)x̂ ,
rection of the magnetic field from the motion of
F1 = (−1 mN)ŷ F2 = (−2 mN)ŷ
the electron beam. (The answer is given in the
The data are insufficient to determine the mag-
answer to the self-check on that page.)
netic field vector; demonstrate this by giving two
(b) Based on your answer to part a, find the di-
different magnetic field vectors, both of which
rection of the currents in the coils.
are consistent with the data.
(c) What direction are the electrons in the coils
going?
18-a9 The following data give the results of
(d) Are the currents in the coils repelling the
two experiments in which charged particles were
currents consisting of the beam inside the tube,
released from the same point in space, and the
or attracting them? Check your answer by com-
forces on them were measured:
q1 = 1 nC , q2 = 1 nC , paring with the result of problem 18-a10.
v1 = (1 m/s)ẑ , v2 = (3 m/s)ẑ ,
F1 = (5 pN)x̂ F2 = (10 pN)x̂ 18-a12 A charged particle of mass m and
+(2 pN)ŷ +(4 pN)ŷ charge q moves in a circle due to a uniform
Is there a nonzero electric field at this point? A magnetic field of magnitude B, which points
nonzero magnetic field? perpendicular to the plane of the circle.
(a) Assume the particle is positively charged.
18-a10 This problem is a continuation of Make a sketch showing the direction of motion
problem 18-a6. Note that the answer to prob- and the direction of the field, and show that
lem 18-a6b is given on page ??. the resulting force is in the right direction to
(a) Interchanging the 1’s and 2’s in the answer produce circular motion.
to problem 18-a6b, what is the magnitude of the (b) Find the radius, r, of the circle, in terms of
√
magnetic force from wire 2 acting on wire 1? Is m, q, v, and B.
this consistent with Newton’s third law? (c) Show that your result from part b has the
(b) Suppose the currents are in the same direc- right units.
tion. Make a sketch, and use the right-hand rule (d) Discuss all four variables occurring on the
to determine whether wire 1 pulls wire 2 towards right-hand side of your answer from part b. Do
it, or pushes it away. they make sense? For instance, what should
(c) Apply the right-hand rule again to find the happen to the radius when the magnetic field is
direction of wire 2’s force on wire 1. Does this made stronger? Does your equation behave this
PROBLEMS 191

Problem 18-a13.

pass by. The particles are speeding up, so this only works
because the cyclotron frequency is independent of veloc-
ity.

18-a13 Each figure represents the motion of

a positively charged particle. The dots give the
particles’ positions at equal time intervals. In
each case, determine whether the motion was
caused by an electric force, a magnetic force, or
a frictional force, and explain your reasoning. If
possible, determine the direction of the magnetic
or electric field. All fields are uniform. In (a), the
particle stops for an instant at the upper right,
but then comes back down and to the left, re-
tracing the same dots. In (b), it stops on the
upper right and stays there.
Problem 18-a11.
18-a14 One model of the hydrogen atom has
the electron circling around the proton at a speed
of 2.2 × 106 m/s, in an orbit with a radius of 0.05
way? nm. (Although the electron and proton really
(e) Restate your result so that it gives the orbit around their common center of mass, the
particle’s angular frequency, ω, in terms of the
√ center of mass is very close to the proton, since
other variables, and show that v drops out. it is 2000 times more massive. For this problem,
assume the proton is stationary.) In homework
Remark: A charged particle can be accelerated in a circu-
problem 16-a4, p. 176, you calculated the elec-
lar device called a cyclotron, in which a magnetic field is
what keeps them from going off straight. This frequency tric current created.
is therefore known as the cyclotron frequency. The parti- (a) Now estimate the magnetic field created at
cles are accelerated by other forces (electric forces), which the center of the atom by the electron. We are
are AC. As long as the electric field is operated at the
treating the circling electron as a current loop, √
correct cyclotron frequency for the type of particles be-
ing manipulated, it will stay in sync with the particles, even though it’s only a single particle.
giving them a shove in the right direction each time they (b) Does the proton experience a nonzero force
192 CHAPTER 18. ELECTROMAGNETISM

from the electron’s magnetic field? Explain. center of one coil, compared to the full strength
√
(c) Does the electron experience a magnetic field at the center of the whole apparatus.
from the proton? Explain. (b) What value of h (not equal to b) would make
(d) Does the electron experience a magnetic field this difference equal to zero? √
created by its own current? Explain.
(e) Is there an electric force acting between the
18-a18
√ The figure shows a nested pair of cir-
proton and electron? If so, calculate it. cular wire loops used to create magnetic fields.
(f) Is there a gravitational force acting between
(The twisting of the leads is a practical trick for
the proton and electron? If so, calculate it. reducing the magnetic fields they contribute, so
(g) An inward force is required to keep the elec-
the fields are very nearly what we would expect
tron in its orbit – otherwise it would obey New-for an ideal circular current loop.) The coordi-
ton’s first law and go straight, leaving the atom.
nate system below is to make it easier to discuss
Based on your answers to the previous parts, directions in space. One loop is in the y−z plane,
which force or forces (electric, magnetic and the other in the x − y plane. Each of the loops
gravitational) contributes significantly to this in-
has a radius of 1.0 cm, and carries 1.0 A in the
ward force? direction indicated by the arrow.
[Based on a problem by Arnold Arons.] (a) Calculate the magnetic field that would be √
produced by one such loop, at its center.
18-a15 The following data give the results (b) Describe the direction of the magnetic field
of three experiments in which charged particles that would be produced, at its center, by the
were released from the same point in space, and loop in the x − y plane alone.
the forces on them were measured: (c) Do the same for the other loop.
q1 = 1 C , v1 = 0 , F1 = (1 N)ŷ (d) Calculate the magnitude of the magnetic field
q2 = 1 C , v2 = (1 m/s)x̂ , F2 = (1 N)ŷ produced by the two loops in combination, at
q3 = 1 C , v3 = (1 m/s)ẑ , F3 = 0 their common center. Describe its direction.√
Determine the electric and magnetic fields. √
18-a19 Four long wires are arranged, as
18-a16 If you put four times more current shown, so that their cross-section forms a square,
through a solenoid, how many times more energy with connections at the ends so that current
is stored in its magnetic field? √
flows through all four before exiting. Note that
the current is to the right in the two back wires,
18-a17 A Helmholtz coil is defined as a pair but to the left in the front wires. If the di-
of identical circular coils lying in parallel planes mensions of the cross-sectional square (height
and separated by a distance, h, equal to their ra- and front-to-back) are b, find the magnetic field
dius, b. (Each coil may have more than one turn (magnitude and direction) along the long central
of wire.) Current circulates in the same direc- axis. √
tion in each coil, so the fields tend to reinforce
each other in the interior region. This configu- 18-a20 In problem 18-a15, the three exper-
ration has the advantage of being fairly open, so iments gave enough information to determine
that other apparatus can be easily placed inside both fields. Is it possible to design a procedure
and subjected to the field while remaining visi- so that, using only two such experiments, we can
ble from the outside. The choice of h = b results always find E and B? If so, design it. If not, why
in the most uniform possible field near the cen- not?
ter. A photograph of a Helmholtz coil is shown
in example ?? on page ??. 18-a21 Consider two solenoids, one of which
(a) Find the percentage drop in the field at the is smaller so that it can be put inside the other.
PROBLEMS 193

Problem 18-a19.

Assume they are long enough so that each one the width of each strip is w, and their length is `.
only contributes significantly to the field inside Each strip carries current I, and we assume for
itself, and the interior fields are nearly uniform. concreteness that the currents are in opposite di-
Consider the configuration where the small one is rections, so that the magnetic force, F , between
inside the big one with their currents circulating the strips is repulsive. √
in the same direction, and a second configura- (a) Find the force in the limit of w h.
tion in which the currents circulate in opposite (b) Find the force in the limit of w h, which
directions. Compare the energies of these config- is like two ordinary wires.
urations with the energy when the solenoids are (c) Discuss the relationship between the two re-
far apart. Based on this reasoning, which config- sults.
uration is stable, and in which configuration will
the little solenoid tend to get twisted around or 18-a24 Suppose we are given a permanent
spit out? magnet with a complicated, asymmetric shape.
Describe how a series of measurements with a
18-a22 Consider two solenoids, one of which magnetic compass could be used to determine
is smaller so that it can be put inside the other. the strength and direction of its magnetic field at
Assume they are long enough to act like ideal some point of interest. Assume that you are only
solenoids, so that each one only contributes sig- able to see the direction to which the compass
nificantly to the field inside itself, and the inte- needle settles; you cannot measure the torque
rior fields are nearly uniform. Consider the con- acting on it.
figuration where the small one is partly inside
and partly hanging out of the big one, with their
currents circulating in the same direction. Their 18-d1 This problem will lead you through the
axes are constrained to coincide. steps of applying the Biot-Savart law to prove
(a) Find the difference in the magnetic energy that the magnetic field of a long, straight wire
between the configuration where the solenoids has magnitude
are separate and the configuration where the 2kI
small one is inserted into the big one. Your B= 2 .
c R
equation will include the length x of the part
of the small solenoid that is inside the big one, Almost everything in this equation has to be the
as well as other relevant variables describing the√
way it is because of units, the only exception
two solenoids. being the unitless factor of 2, so this problem
(b) Based on your answer to part a, find the force amounts to proving that it really does come out
acting to be 2[.] (a) Set up the integral prescribed by
the Biot-Savart law, and simplify it so that it in-
18-a23 Two long, parallel strips of thin metal volves only scalar variables rather than a vector
foil form a configuration like a long, narrow sand- cross product, but do not evaluate it yet.
wich. The air gap between them has height h, (b) Your integral will contain several different
194 CHAPTER 18. ELECTROMAGNETISM

variables, each of which is changing as we inte-

grate along the wire. These will probably in-
clude a position on the wire, a distance from the
point on the wire to the point at which the field
is to be found, and an angle between the wire
and this point-to-point line. In order to eval-
uate the integral, it is necessary to express the
integral in terms of only one of these variables.
It’s not obvious, but the integral turns out to be
easiest to evaluate if you express it in terms of
the angles and eliminate the other variables. Do
so. Note that the d. . . part of the integral has
to be reexpressed in the same way we would do Problem 18-d3.
any time we attacked an integral by substitution
(“u-substitution”).
(c) Pulling out all constant factors now gives a B = (kI/c2 u)(1/a − 1/b). Note that the solution
definite integral. Evaluate this integral, which to problem 18-d3 is given in the back of the book.
you should find is a trivial one, and show that it
equals 2.
18-g1 A certain region of space has a mag-
18-d2 A regular polygon with n sides can be netic field given by B = bxŷ. Find the electric
inscribed within a circle of radius R and can have current flowing through the square defined by
a circle
√ inscribed inside it with radius h. Let z = 0, 0 ≤ x ≤ a, and 0 ≤ y ≤ a. √
ρ = hR be the geometric mean of these two
radii. A current loop is constructed in the shape
of a regular n-gon. Show that the magnetic field
18-g2 Verify Ampère’s law in the case shown
at the center can be calculated in a simple way
in the figure, assuming the known equation for
from the perimeter and ρ, and make sense of the
the field of a wire. A wire carrying current I
result in the extreme cases n = 2 (a degenerate
passes perpendicularly through the center of the
polygon enclosing no area) and n → ∞.
rectangular Ampèrian surface. The length of the
rectangle is infinite, so it’s not necessary to com-
18-d3 Magnet coils are often wrapped in pute the contributions of the ends.
multiple layers. The figure shows the special
case where the layers are all confined to a sin-
gle plane, forming a spiral. Since the thickness
of the wires (plus their insulation) is fixed, the
spiral that results is a mathematical type known
as an Archimedean spiral, in which the turns
are evenly spaced. The equation of the spiral is
r = wθ, where w is a constant. For a spiral that
starts from r = a and ends at r = b, show that
the field at the center is given by (kI/c2 w) ln b/a.
. Solution, p. 239 Problem 18-g2.
18-d4 Perform a calculation similar to the one
in problem 18-d3, but for a logarithmic spiral,
defined by r = weuθ , and show that the field is
19 Maxwell’s equations and electromag-
netic waves
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems the cross product E × B, and carry momentum
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although p = U/c.
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to 19.3 Maxwell’s equations in
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- matter
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show A complete statement of Maxwell’s equations in
what terminology and notation are being used. the presence of electric and magnetic materials
is as follows:
19.1 Maxwell’s equations ΦD = qfree
ΦB = 0
The fundamental laws of physics governing elec-
tric and magnetic fields are Maxwell’s equations, dΦB
ΓE = −
which state that for any closed surface, the fluxes dt
through the surface are dΦD
ΓH = + Ifree ,
dt
ΦE = 4πkqin and
where the auxiliary fields D and H are defined
ΦB = 0. as

For any surface that is not closed, the circula- D = E and

tions around the edges of the surface are given B
by H= ,
µ
∂ΦB and and µ are the permittivity and permeabil-
ΓE = − and
∂t ity of the substance.
∂ΦE
c2 ΓB = + 4πkIthrough .
∂t

19.2 Electromagnetic waves

The most important result of Maxwell’s equa-
tions is the existence of electromagnetic waves
which propagate at the velocity of light — that’s
what light is. The waves are transverse, and
the electric and magnetic fields are perpendic-
ular to each other. There are no purely electric
or purely magnetic waves; their amplitudes are
always related to one another by B = E/c. They
propagate in the right-handed direction given by

195
196 CHAPTER 19. MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

Problems
19-a1 A U-shaped wire makes electrical con-
tact with a second, straight wire, which rolls
along it to the right, as shown in the figure. The
whole thing is immersed in a uniform magnetic
field, which is perpendicular to the plane of the
circuit. The resistance of the rolling wire is much
greater than that of the U.
(a) Find the direction of the force on the wire
Problem 19-a2.
based on conservation of energy.
(b) Verify the direction of the force using right-
hand rules. √
(c) Find the magnitude of the force acting on the
wire. There is more than one way to do this, but 19-a3 (a) For each term appearing on the
please do it using Faraday’s law (which works right side of Maxwell’s equations, give an exam-
even though it’s the Ampèrian surface itself that√
ple of an everyday situation it describes.
is changing, rather than the field). (b) Most people doing calculations in the SI sys-
(d) Consider how the answer to part a would tem of units don’t use k and k/c2 . Instead, they
have changed if the direction of the field had express everything in terms of the constants
been reversed, and also do the case where the
direction of the rolling wire’s motion is reversed. 1
o = and
Verify that this is in agreement with your answer 4πk
to part c. 4πk
µo = 2 .
c
Rewrite Maxwell’s equations in terms of these
constants, eliminating k and c everywhere.

19-a4 The circular parallel-plate capacitor

shown in the figure is being charged up over time,
with the voltage difference across the plates vary-
ing as V = st, where s is a constant. The plates
have radius b, and the distance between them is
d. We assume d b, so that the electric field
Problem 19-a1. between the plates is uniform, and parallel to
the axis. Find the induced magnetic field at a
point between the plates, at a distance R from
19-a2 A wire loop of resistance R and area A, the axis. √
lying in the y − z plane, falls through a nonuni-
form magnetic field B = kzx̂, where k is a con- 19-d1 A charged particle is in motion at
stant. The z axis is vertical. speed v, in a region of vacuum through which
(a) Find the direction of the force on the wire an electromagnetic wave is passing. In what di-
based on conservation of energy. rection should the particle be moving in order
(b) Verify the direction of the force using right- to minimize the total force acting on it? Con-
hand rules. sider both possibilities for the sign of the charge.
(c) Find the magnetic force on the wire. (Based on a problem by David J. Raymond.)
PROBLEMS 197

19-d4 Electromagnetic waves are supposed to

have their electric and magnetic fields perpen-
dicular to each other. (Throughout this prob-
lem, assume we’re talking about waves travel-
ing through a vacuum, and that there is only
a single sine wave traveling in a single direction,
Problem 19-a4.
not a superposition of sine waves passing through
each other.) Suppose someone claims they can
make an electromagnetic wave in which the elec-
tric and magnetic fields lie in the same plane.
19-d2 (a) Prove that in an electromagnetic Prove that this is impossible based on Maxwell’s
plane wave, half the energy is in the electric field equations.
and half in the magnetic field.
(b) Based on your result from part a, find the 19-d5 A positively charged particle is released
proportionality constant in the relation dp ∝ from rest at the origin at t = 0, in a region of
E×B dv, where dp is the momentum of the part vacuum through which an electromagnetic wave
of a plane light wave contained in the volume dv. is passing. The particle accelerates in response
The vector E × B, multiplied by the appropriate to the wave. In this region of space, the wave
constant, is known as the Poynting vector, and varies as E = x̂Ẽ sin ωt, B = ŷB̃ sin ωt, and we
even outside the context of an electromagnetic assume that the particle has a relatively large
plane wave, it can be interpreted as a momen- value of m/q, so that its response to the wave
tum density or rate of energy flow. (To do this is sluggish, and it never ends up moving at any
problem, you need to know the relativistic rela- speed comparable to the speed of light. There-
tionship between the energy and momentum of fore we don’t have to worry about the spatial
a beam of light from problem ?? on p. ??.) √ variation of the wave; we can just imagine that
these are uniform fields imposed by some exter-
19-d3 (a) A beam of light has cross-sectional nal mechanism on this region of space.
area A and power P , i.e., P is the number of (a) Find the particle’s coordinates as functions √
joules per second that enter a window through of time.
which the beam passes. Find the energy density (b) Show that the motion is confined to −zmax ≤
U/v in terms of P , A, and universal constants. z ≤ zmax , where zmax = 1.101 q 2 Ẽ B̃/m2 ω 3 .
(b) Find Ẽ and B̃, the amplitudes of the elec-
tric and magnetic fields, in terms of P , A, and 19-d6 If you watch a movie played backwards,
universal constants (i.e., your answer should not some vectors reverse their direction. For in-
include U or v). You will need the result of prob- stance, people walk backwards, with their veloc-
lem 19-d2a. A real beam of light usually consists ity vectors flipped around. Other vectors, such
of many short wavetrains, not one big sine wave,√
as forces, keep the same direction, e.g., grav-
but don’t worry about that. ity still pulls down. An electric field is another
(c) A beam of sunlight has an intensity of P/A = example of a vector that doesn’t turn around:
1.35 × 103 W/m2 , assuming no clouds or atmo- positive charges are still positive in the time-
spheric absorption. This is known as the solar reversed universe, so they still make diverging
constant. Compute Ẽ and B̃, and compare with electric fields, and likewise for the converging
the strengths of static fields you experience in fields around negative charges.
everyday life: E ∼ 106 V/m in a thunderstorm, (a) How does the momentum of a material ob-
and B ∼ 10−3 T for the Earth’s magnetic field. ject behave under time-reversal?
198 CHAPTER 19. MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

(b) The laws of physics are still valid in the time- and from it, to prove that the interior field is
reversed universe. For example, show that if two uniform, and given by
material objects are interacting, and momentum " #
is conserved, then momentum is still conserved 9x
B= Bo .
in the time-reversed universe. 3
(2x + 1)(x + 2) − 2 ab3 (x − 1)2
(c) Discuss how currents and magnetic fields
would behave under time reversal. This is a very difficult problem to solve from first
(d) Similarly, show that the equation dp ∝ E×B principles, because it’s not obvious what form
is still valid under time reversal. the fields should have, and if you hadn’t been
. Solution, p. 239 told, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that
the interior field would be uniform. We could,
19-d7 This problem is a more advanced ex- however, guess that once the sphere becomes po-
ploration of the time-reversal ideas introduced in larized by the external field, it would become a
problem 19-d6. dipole, and at r b, the field would be a uni-
(a) In that problem, we assumed that charge did form field superimposed on the field of a dipole.
not flip its sign under time reversal. Suppose It turns out that even close to the sphere, the
we make the opposite assumption, that charge solution has exactly this form. In order to com-
does change its sign. This is an idea introduced plete the solution, we need to find the field in
by Richard Feynman: that antimatter is really the shell (a < r < b), but the only way this field
matter traveling backward in time! Determine could match up with the detailed angular varia-
the time-reversal properties of E and B under tion of the interior and exterior fields would be
this new assumption, and show that dp ∝ E × B if it was also a superposition of a uniform field
is still valid under time-reversal. with a dipole field. The final result is that we
(b) Show that Maxwell’s equations are time- have four unknowns: the strength of the dipole
reversal symmetric, i.e., that if the fields component of the external field, the strength of
E(x, y, z, t) and B(x, y, z, t) satisfy Maxwell’s the uniform and dipole components of the field
equations, then so do E(x, y, z, −t) and within the shell, and the strength of the uniform
B(x, y, z, −t). Demonstrate this under both pos- interior field. These four unknowns are to be
sible assumptions about charge, q → q and determined by imposing constraints (2) through
q → −q. (5) above.
(b) Show that the expression from part a has
physically reasonable behavior in its dependence
19-g1 (a) Figure ?? on page ?? shows a
on x and a/b.
hollow sphere with µ/µo = x, inner radius a,
??
and outer radius b, which has been subjected
to an external field Bo . Finding the fields on
the exterior, in the shell, and on the interior re-
quires finding a set of fields that satisfies five
boundary conditions: (1) far from the sphere,
the field must approach the constant Bo ; (2) at
the outer surface of the sphere, the field must
have Hk,1 = Hk,2 , as discussed on page ??; (3)
the same constraint applies at the inner surface
of the sphere; (4) and (5) there is an additional
constraint on the fields at the inner and outer
surfaces, as found in problem ??. The goal of
this problem is to find the solution for the fields,
20 LRC circuits
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems part is called an imaginary number. The com-
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although plex numbers can be visualized as a plane, with
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum- the real number line placed horizontally like the
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is x axis of the familiar x − y plane, and the imag-
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to inary numbers running along the y axis. The
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur- complex numbers are complete in a way that
pose of the summary is to show what material is the real numbers aren’t: every nonzero complex
needed in order to do the problems, and to show number has two square roots. For example, 1 is
what terminology and notation are being used. a real number, so it is also a member of the com-
plex numbers, and its square roots are −1 and
1. Likewise, −1 has square roots√i and −i, √ and
20.1 Complex numbers the number
√ i
√ has square roots 1/ 2 + i/ 2 and
−1/ 2 − i/ 2.
For a more detailed treatment of complex num-
bers, see ch. 3 of James Nearing’s free book at
physics.miami.edu/nearing/mathmethods/.

Figure 20.2: Addition of complex numbers is

just like addition of vectors, although the real
Figure 20.1: Visualizing complex numbers as and imaginary axes don’t actually represent di-
points in a plane. rections in space.

We assume there is a number, i, such that Complex numbers can be added and sub-
i2 = −1. The square roots of −1 are then i tracted by adding or subtracting their real and
and −i. (In electrical engineering work, where i imaginary parts. Geometrically, this is the same
stands for current, j is sometimes used instead.) as vector addition.
This gives rise to a number system, called the The complex numbers a + bi and a − bi, lying
complex numbers, containing the real numbers at equal distances above and below the real axis,
as a subset. Any complex number z can be writ- are called complex conjugates. The results of
ten in the form z = a+bi, where a and b are real, the quadratic formula are either both real, or
and a and b are then referred to as the real and complex conjugates of each other. The complex
imaginary parts of z. A number with a zero real conjugate of a number z is notated as z̄ or z ∗ .

199
200 CHAPTER 20. LRC CIRCUITS

There is a nice interpretation of complex mul-

tiplication. We define the argument of a com-
plex number as its angle in the complex plane,
measured counterclockwise from the positive real
axis. Multiplying two complex numbers then
corresponds to multiplying their magnitudes,
and adding their arguments.

Figure 20.3: A complex number and its conju-

gate.

The complex numbers obey all the same rules

of arithmetic as the reals, except that they can’t
be ordered along a single line. That is, it’s not
possible to say whether one complex number is
greater than another. We can compare them in Figure 20.5: The argument of uv is the sum of
terms of their magnitudes (their distances from the arguments of u and v.
the origin), but two distinct complex numbers
Having expanded our horizons to include the
may have the same magnitude, so, for example,
complex numbers, it’s natural to want to ex-
we can’t say whether 1 is greater than i or i is
tend functions we knew and loved from the world
greater than 1.
of real numbers so that they can also operate
on complex numbers. The only really natural
way to do this in general is to use Taylor series.
A particularly beautiful thing happens with the
functions ex , sin x, and cos x:
1 2 1
ex = 1 + x + x3 + . . .
2! 3!
1 1
cos x = 1 − x2 + x4 − . . .
2! 4!
1 1
sin x = x − x3 + x5 − . . .
3! 5!
If x = iφ is an imaginary number, we have

eiφ = cos φ + i sin φ,

a result known as Euler’s formula. The geometri-

Figure 20.4: A complex number can be described cal interpretation in the complex plane is shown
in terms of its magnitude and argument. in figure 20.6.
20.1. COMPLEX NUMBERS 201

Although the result may seem like something

out of a freak show at first, applying the defini-
tion of the exponential function makes it clear
how natural it is:
x n
ex = lim 1 + .
n→∞ n
When x = iφ is imaginary, the quantity (1 +
iφ/n) represents a number lying just above 1 in
the complex plane. For large n, (1 + iφ/n) be-
comes very close to the unit circle, and its argu-
ment is the small angle φ/n. Raising this number
to the nth power multiplies its argument by n,
giving a number with an argument of φ.
Figure 20.7: Representing functions with points
in polar coordinates.

Figure 20.6: The complex number eiφ lies on the

unit circle.
Figure 20.8: Adding two sinusoidal functions.
Sinusoidal functions have a remarkable prop-
erty, which is that if you add two different si-
nusoidal functions having the same frequency,
the result is also a sinusoid with
√ that frequency.
For example, cos ωt + sin ωt = 2 sin(ωt + π/4), cos ωt = 2 cos ωt, where everything has the same
which can be proved using trig identities. The phase, so all the points lie along a single line in
trig identities can get very cumbersome, how- the polar plot, and addition is just like adding
ever, and there is a much easier technique in- numbers on the number√line. The less trivial ex-
volving complex numbers. ample cos ωt + sin ωt = 2 sin(ωt + π/4), can be
Figure 20.7 shows a useful way to visualize visualized as in figure 20.8.
what’s going on. When a circuit is oscillating at
a frequency ω, we use points in the plane to rep- Figure 20.8 suggests that all of this can be
resent sinusoidal functions with various phases tied together nicely if we identify our plane with
and amplitudes. the plane of complex numbers. For example, the
The simplest examples of how to visualize complex numbers 1 and i represent the functions
this in polar coordinates are ones like cos ωt + sin ωt and cos ωt.
202 CHAPTER 20. LRC CIRCUITS

20.2 LRC circuits When driven by a sinusoidal AC voltage with

amplitude Ṽ , a capacitor, resistor, or inductor
As discussed previously, capacitance, C, is de- responds with a current having amplitude
fined as
Ṽ
1 2 I˜ = ,
UC = q . Z
2C
where the impedance, Z, is a frequency-
Similarly, inductance, L, is defined as dependent quantity having units of ohms. In a
capacitor, the current has a phase that is 90◦
L ahead of the voltage, while in an inductor the
UL = I 2 , current is 90◦ behind. We can represent these
2
phase relationships by defining the impedances
and measured in units of henries. The magni- as complex numbers:
tude of the voltage difference across a capacitor
or inductor is given by i
ZC = −
ωC
q ZR = R
VC =
C
ZL = iωL
or
The arguments of the complex impedances are
dI to be interpreted as phase relationships between
VL = L . the oscillating voltages and currents. The com-
dt
plex impedances defined in this way combine in
In the equation for the inductor, the direction of series and parallel according to the same rules as
the voltage drop (plus or minus sign) is such that resistances.
the inductor resists the change in current. When a voltage source is driving a load
A series LRC circuit exhibits oscillation, and, through a transmission line, the maximum power
if driven by an external voltage, resonates. The is delivered to the load when the impedances of
Q of the circuit relates to the resistance value. the line and the load are matched.
For large Q, the resonant frequency is

1
ω≈√ .
LC

A series RC or RL circuit exhibits exponential

decay,

t
q = qo exp −
RC

or

R
I = Io exp − t ,
L

and the quantity RC or L/R is known as the

time constant.
PROBLEMS 203

Problems b represent real numbers, and all angles are to

be expressed in radians. As often happens with
20-a1 Find arg i, arg(−i), and arg 37, where fractional exponents, the cube root of a complex
arg z denotes the argument of the complex num- number will typically have more than one possi-
ber z. ble value. (Cf. 41/2 , which can be 2 or −2.) In
. Solution, p. 239 parts c and d, this ambiguity is resolved explic-
20-a2 Visualize the following multiplications itly in the instructions, in a way that is meant
in the complex plane using the interpretation to make the calculation
as easy as possible. √
of multiplication in terms of multiplying mag- (a) Calculate arg (eiθ )3 .
nitudes and adding arguments: (i)(i) = −1, (b) Of the points u, v, w, and x shown in the
(i)(−i) = 1, (−i)(−i) = −1. figure, which could √be a cube
root of z?
. Solution, p. 239 (c) Calculate arg 3 a + bi . For simplicity, as-
sume that a + bi is in the first quadrant of the
20-a3 If we visualize z as a point in the com-
complex plane, and compute the answer for √a
plex plane, how should we visualize −z? What
root that also lies in the first quadrant.
does this mean in terms of arguments?
√ Give sim-
(d) Compute
ilar interpretations for z 2 and z.
. Solution, p. 239 1+i
20-a4 Find four different complex numbers z .
(−2 + 2i)1/3
4
such that z = 1.
. Solution, p. 239 Because there is more than one possible root
20-a5 Compute the following. For the final to use in the denominator, multiple answers are
two, use the magnitude and argument, not the possible in this problem. Use the root that re-
real and imaginary parts. sults in the final answer that lies closest to the
real line. (This is also the easiest one to find by
1 1 using the magnitude-argument techniques intro-
|1+i| , arg(1+i) , , arg ,
1 + i 1 + i duced in the text.) √

From these, find the real and imaginary parts of

1/(1 + i).
. Solution, p. 239
20-d1 (a) Use complex number techniques to
rewrite the function f (t) = 4 sin ωt + 3 cos ωt in
√
the form A sin(ωt + δ).
(b) Verify the result using the trigonometric
identity sin(α + β) = sin α cos β + sin β cos α.

20-d2 This problem deals with the cubes and

cube roots of complex numbers, but the prin-
ciples involved apply more generally to other
exponents besides 3 and 1/3. These examples
are designed to be much easier to do using the
magnitude-argument representation of complex Problem 20-d2.
numbers than with the cartesian representation.
If done by the easiest technique, none of these
requires more than two or three lines of simple 20-d3 Calculate the quantity ii (i.e., find its
math. In the following, the symbols θ, a, and real and imaginary parts).
204 CHAPTER 20. LRC CIRCUITS

√ √
and how does this relate to your plot?
20-g1 (a) Show that the equation VL = (c) What is the resonant frequency fres corre-
L dI/ dt has the right units. sponding to your answer in part b? √
(b) Verify that RC has units of time.
(c) Verify that L/R has units of time.

20-g2 Find the inductance of two identical

inductors in parallel. 20-g8 At a frequency of 53.1 kHz, a certain
series LR circuit has an impedance of 1.6 kΩ +
20-g3 The wires themselves in a circuit can (1.2 kΩ)i. Suppose that instead we want to
have resistance, inductance, and capacitance. achieve the same impedance using two circuit el-
Would “stray” inductance and capacitance be ements in parallel. What must the elements be?
most important for low-frequency or for high- As a check on your answer, you should find that
frequency circuits? For simplicity, assume that both values are round numbers when rounded off
the wires act like they’re in series with an induc- to the correct number of significant figures.
tor or capacitor.

20-g4 Starting from the relation V = L dI/ dt

for the voltage difference across an inductor,
show that an inductor has an impedance equal 20-g9 (a) In a series LC circuit driven by a
to Lω. DC voltage (ω = 0), compare the energy stored
in the inductor to the energy stored in the
20-g5 Suppose that an FM radio tuner for the capacitor.
US commercial broadcast band (88-108 MHz) (b) Carry out the same comparison for an LC
consists of a series LRC circuit. If the induc- circuit that is oscillating freely (without any
tor is 1.0 µH, what range of capacitances should driving voltage).
the variable capacitor be able to provide? √ (c) Now consider the general case of a series LC
circuit driven by an oscillating voltage at an
20-g6 (a) Find the parallel impedance of a arbitrary frequency. Let UL and be the average
37 kΩ resistor and a 1.0 nF capacitor at f = energy stored in the inductor, and similarly for
√
4
1.0 × 10 Hz. UC . Define a quantity u = UC /(UL + UC ),
(b) A voltage with an amplitude of 1.0 mV drives which can be interpreted as the capacitor’s
this impedance at this frequency. What is the average share of the energy, while 1 − u is the
amplitude of the current drawn from the voltage inductor’s average share. Find u in terms of L,
source, what is the current’s phase angle with re- C, and ω, and sketch a graph of u and 1 − u
spect to the voltage, and does it lead the voltage, versus ω. What happens at resonance? Make
or lag behind it? sure your result is consistent with your answer √
√
to part a.
20-g7 A series LRC circuit consists of a 1.000
Ω resistor, a 1.000 F capacitor, and a 1.000 H in-
ductor. (These are not particularly easy values
to find on the shelf!)
(a) Plot its impedance as a point in the com-
plex plane for each of the following frequencies:
ω=0.250, 0.500, 1.000, 2.000, and 4.000 Hz.
(b) What is the resonant angular frequency, ωres ,
21 Thermodynamics
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

21.1 Pressure, temperature,

and heat
References:

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-

ter.com, sec. 5.1
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 2, ch. 1

21.2 Kinetic theory

References:

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-

ter.com, sec. 5.2
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 2, ch. 2-3

21.3 Entropy
References:
• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-
ter.com, sec. 5.3-4
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 2, ch. 4

205
206 CHAPTER 21. THERMODYNAMICS

Problems example, the unit of force is 1 g·cm/s2 , and all

other units are based on the centimeter, gram,
21-a1 (a) Show that under conditions of stan- and second, rather than the SI base units of me-
dard pressure and temperature, the volume of a ters, kilograms, and seconds.
sample of an ideal gas depends only on the num-
ber of molecules in it. 21-d1 (a) A helium atom contains 2 protons,
(b) One mole is defined as 6.0×1023 atoms. Find 2 electrons, and 2 neutrons. Find the mass of √ a
the volume of one mole of an ideal gas, in units helium atom.
of liters, at standard temperature and pressure (b) Find the number of atoms in 1.0 kg of helium. √
(0◦ C and 101 kPa). √
(c) Helium gas is monoatomic. Find the amount
21-a2 A gas in a cylinder expands its volume of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1.0
by an amount dV , pushing out a piston. Show kg of helium by 1.0 degree C. (This is known as
that the work done by the gas on the piston is helium’s heat capacity at constant volume.)√
given by dW = P dV .
21-d2 A sample of gas is enclosed in a sealed
21-a3 (a) Atmospheric pressure at sea level chamber. The gas consists of molecules, which
is 101 kPa. The deepest spot in the world’s are then split in half through some process such
oceans is a valley called the Challenger Deep, in as exposure to ultraviolet light, or passing an
the Marianas Trench, with a depth of 11.0 km. electric spark through the gas. The gas re-
Find the pressure at this depth, in units of at- turns to the same temperature as the surround-
mospheres. Although water under this amount ing room, but the molecules remain split apart,
of pressure does compress by a few percent, as- at least for some amount of time. (To achieve
sume for the purposes of this problem that it is these conditions, we would need an extremely
incompressible. dilute gas. Otherwise the recombination of the
(b) Suppose that an air bubble is formed at this molecules would be faster than the cooling down
depth and then rises to the surface. Estimate to the same temperature as the room.) How does
the change in its volume and radius. its pressure now compare with its pressure before
. Solution, p. 240 the molecules were split?
21-a4 The ideal gas law is P V = nkT , and
if everything is expressed in SI units, then the 21-d3 Most of the atoms in the universe are
Boltzmann constant k has the numerical value in the form of gas that is not part of any star
k = 1.38 × 10−23 J/K. You may also have or galaxy: the intergalactic medium (IGM). The
−5
seen a version of the equation in which n is ex- IGM consists of about 10 atoms per cubic cen-
3
pressed in units of moles rather than molecules, timeter, with a typical temperature of about 10
and the constant of proportionality then has a K. These are, in some sense, the density and
different value. The following are three other temperature of the universe (not counting light,
ways in which we could imagine making a dif- or the exotic particles known as “dark matter”).
ferent version of the equation. In each case, ex- Calculate the pressure of the universe (or, speak-
plain whether this makes sense, and if so, find ing more carefully, the typical pressure due to the
the value of the constant of proportionality that IGM). √
would replace the SI value of k.
(a) Temperature is measured in degrees Celsius. 21-d4 (a) Determine the ratio between the
(b) The amount of gas is measured in kilograms. escape velocities from the surfaces of the earth √
(c) The pressure and volume are measured in the and the moon.
centimeter-gram-second (cgs) system, where, for (b) The temperature during the lunar daytime
PROBLEMS 207

gets up to about 130◦ C. In the extremely thin purely out of neutral, monatomic hydrogen, and
(almost nonexistent) lunar atmosphere, estimate that the whole mass of the sun is in thermal equi-
how the typical velocity of a molecule would com- librium. Given its mass, it would then contain
pare with that of the same type of molecule in 1.2 × 1057 atoms. It generates energy from nu-
the earth’s atmosphere. Assume that the earth’s √
clear reactions at a rate of 3.8 × 1026 W, and it
atmosphere has a temperature of 0◦ C. is in a state of equilibrium in which this amount
(c) Suppose you were to go to the moon and of energy is radiated off into space as light. Sup-
release some fluorocarbon gas, with molecular pose that its ability to radiate light were some-
formula Cn F2n+2 . Estimate what is the small- how blocked. Find the rate at which its temper-
est fluorocarbon molecule (lowest n) whose typ- ature would increase. √
ical velocity would be lower than that of an N2
molecule on earth in proportion to the moon’s
21-d7 In metals, some electrons, called con-
lower escape velocity. The moon would be able
duction electrons, are free to move around,
to retain an atmosphere made of these molecules.
√ rather than being bound to one atom. Classical
physics gives an adequate description of many of
21-d5 Our sun is powered by nuclear fu- their properties. Consider a metal at tempera-
sion reactions, and as a first step in these reac- ture T , and let m be the mass of the electron.
tions, one proton must approach another proton Find expressions for (a) the average kinetic en-
to within a short enough range r. This is diffi- ergy of a conduction electron, and (b) the aver-
cult to achieve, because the protons have electric age square of its velocity, v 2 . (It would not be
charge +e and therefore repel one another elec- of much interest to find v, which is just zero.)
trically. (It’s a good thing that it’s so difficult, p
Numerically, v 2 , called the root-mean-square
because otherwise the sun would use up all of
velocity, comes out to be surprisingly large —
its fuel very rapidly and explode.) To make fu-
about two orders of magnitude greater than the
sion possible, the protons must be moving fast
normal thermal velocities we find for atoms in a
enough to come within the required range. Even
gas. Why?
at the high temperatures present in the core of Remark: From this analysis, one would think that the
our sun, almost none of the protons are moving conduction electrons would contribute greatly to the heat
fast enough. capacities of metals. In fact they do not contribute very
(a) For comparison, the early universe, soon af- much in most cases; if they did, Dulong and Petit’s obser-
vations would not have come out as described in the text.
ter the Big Bang, had extremely high tempera- The resolution of this contradiction was only eventually
tures. Estimate the temperature T that would worked out by Sommerfeld in 1933, and involves the fact
have been required so that protons with average that electrons obey the Pauli exclusion principle. √
energies could fuse. State your result in terms of
r, the mass m of the proton, and universal con- 21-d8 Most of the mass of an atom comes
stants. from its protons and neutrons. The mass of a
(b) Show that the units of your answer to part a proton is approximately the same as the mass of
make sense. a neutron. The planet Jupiter is made mostly
(c) Evaluate your result from part a numerically, of hydrogen molecules. A normal hydrogen
using r = 10−15 m and m = 1.7 × 10−27 kg. As molecule (H2 ) contains two protons (one in each
a check, you should find that this is much hotter atom), and no neutrons. A small percentage of
than the sun’s core temperature of ∼ 107 K. the hydrogen in the universe is in a form in which
. Solution, p. 240 the nucleus contains both a proton and a neu-
21-d6 The sun is mainly a mixture of hydro- tron; this is called deuterium, often notated D.
gen and helium, some of which is ionized. As Since deuterium isn’t very abundant, the most
a simplified model, let’s pretend that it’s made common thing to happen to a deuterium atom
208 CHAPTER 21. THERMODYNAMICS

in Jupiter’s atmosphere is that it would find it- with an efficiency of 3, for one hour, what would
self in a molecule whose other atom was a normal be the effect on the total entropy of the universe?
hydrogen atom. The resulting molecule could be Is your answer consistent with the second law of
described as a DH. A DH molecule contains a to- thermodynamics? √
tal of two protons and one neutron. Compare the
typical speed of a DH molecule in Jupiter’s at- 21-g4 Even when resting, the human body
mosphere with the typical speed of an H2 . Give needs to do a certain amount of mechanical work
a quantitative comparison, and notate it so that to keep the heart beating. This quantity is dif-
it’s clear which is the higher speed. ficult to define and measure with high precision,
and also depends on the individual and her level
21-g1 Object A is a brick. Object B is half of activity, but it’s estimated to be about 1 to 5
of a similar brick. If A is heated, we have ∆S = watts. Suppose we consider the human body as
Q/T . Show that if this equation is valid for A, nothing more than a pump. A person who is just
then it is also valid for B. lying in bed all day needs about 1000 kcal/day
. Solution, p. 240 worth of food to stay alive. (a) Estimate the
21-g2 You use a spoon at room temperature, person’s thermodynamic efficiency as a pump,
22◦ C, to mix your coffee, which is at 80◦ C. Dur- and (b) compare with the maximum possible ef-
ing this brief period of thermal contact, 1.3 J of ficiency imposed by the laws of thermodynamics
heat is transferred from the coffee to the spoon. for a heat engine operating across the difference
Find the total change in the entropy of the uni- between a body temperature of 37◦ C and an am-
verse. bient temperature of 22◦ C. (c) Interpret your
√
answer.
21-g3 Refrigerators, air conditioners, and
heat pumps are heat engines that work in re- 21-g5 (a) Consider a one-dimensional ideal
verse. You put in mechanical work, and the ef- gas consisting of n material particles, at temper-
fect is to take heat out of a cooler reservoir and ature T . Trace back through the logic of the
deposit heat in a warmer one: QL + W = QH . equipartition theorem on p. ?? to determine the
As with the heat engines discussed previously, total energy.
the efficiency is defined as the energy transfer (b) Explain why it should matter how many di-
you want (QL for a refrigerator or air condi- mensions there are.
tioner, QH for a heat pump) divided by the en- (c) Gases that we encounter in everyday life are
ergy transfer you pay for (W ). made of atoms, but there are gases made out
Efficiencies are supposed to be unitless, but of other things. For example, soon after the
the efficiency of an air conditioner is normally big bang, there was a period when the universe
given in terms of an EER rating (or a more com- was very hot and dominated by light rather than
plex version called an SEER). The EER is de- matter. A particle of light is called a photon, so
fined as QL /W , but expressed in the barbaric the early universe was a “photon gas.” For sim-
units of of Btu/watt-hour. A typical EER rat- plicity, consider a photon gas in one dimension.
ing for a residential air conditioner is about 10 Photons are massless, and we will see in ch. ??
Btu/watt-hour, corresponding to an efficiency of on relativity that for a massless particle, the en-
about 3. The standard temperatures used for ergy is related to the momentum by E = pc,
testing an air conditioner’s efficiency are 80◦ F where c is the speed of light. (Note that p = mv
(27◦ C) inside and 95◦ F (35◦ C) outside. does not hold for a photon.) Again, trace back
(a) What would be the EER rating of a reversed √
through the logic of equipartition on p. ??. Does
Carnot engine used as an air conditioner? the photon gas have the same heat capacity as
(b) If you ran a 3-kW residential air conditioner, the one you found in part a?
PROBLEMS 209

21-g6 Example ?? on page ?? suggests ana-

lyzing the resonance of a violin at 300 Hz as a
Helmholtz resonance. However, we might expect
the equation for the frequency of a Helmholtz
resonator to be a rather crude approximation
here, since the f-holes are not long tubes, but slits
cut through the face of the instrument, which is
only about 2.5 mm thick. (a) Estimate the fre-
quency that way anyway, for a violin with a vol-
ume of about 1.6 liters, and f-holes with a total
area of 10 cm2 . (b) A common rule of thumb is
that at an open end of an air column, such as
the neck of a real Helmholtz resonator, some air
beyond the mouth also vibrates as if it was inside
the tube, and that this effect can be taken into
account by adding 0.4 times the diameter of the
tube for each open end (i.e., 0.8 times the diam-
eter when both ends are open). Applying this to
the violin’s f-holes results in a huge change in L,
since the ∼ 7 mm width of the f-hole is consider-
ably greater than the thickness of the wood. Try
it, and see if the result is a better approximation
to the observed frequency of the resonance.
210 CHAPTER 21. THERMODYNAMICS
22 Optics
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

22.1 Geometric optics

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-
ter.com, sec. 12.1-4
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 3, ch. 1-2

22.2 Wave optics

References:

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-

ter.com, sec. 12.5
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 3, ch. 3-4

211
212 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

Problems
22-a1 Draw a ray diagram showing why
a small light source (a candle, say) produces
sharper shadows than a large one (e.g., a long
fluorescent bulb).
Problem 22-a5.
22-a2 A Global Positioning System (GPS) re-
ceiver is a device that lets you figure out where
you are by receiving timed radio signals from the normal at each place where a ray is reflected.
satellites. It works by measuring the travel time What do you notice? (b) Make up an example
for the signals, which is related to the distance of a practical use for this device. (c) How could
between you and the satellite. By finding the you use this mirror with a small lightbulb to pro-
ranges to several different satellites in this way, duce a parallel beam of light rays going off to the
it can pin down your location in three dimen- right?
sions to within a few meters. How accurate does . Solution, p. 241
the measurement of the time delay have to be to
determine your position to this accuracy?

22-a3 Estimate the frequency of an electro-

magnetic wave whose wavelength is similar in
size to an atom (about a nm). In what part of
the electromagnetic spectrum would such a wave
lie (infrared, gamma-rays, . . . )?

22-a4 The Stealth Bomber is designed with

flat, smooth surfaces. Why would this make it
difficult to detect using radar?
Problem 22-a6.
. Solution, p. 240
22-a5 The natives of planet Wumpus play
pool using light rays on an eleven-sided table 22-a7 Suppose we have a polygonal room
with mirrors for bumpers, shown in the figure. whose walls are mirrors, and there a pointlike
Trace this shot accurately with a ruler to reveal light source in the room. In most such exam-
the hidden message. To get good enough accu- ples, every point in the room ends up being il-
racy, you’ll need to photocopy the page (or down- luminated by the light source after some finite
load the book and print the page) and construct number of reflections. A difficult mathematical
each reflection using a protractor. question, first posed in the middle of the last
. Solution, p. 240 century, is whether it is ever possible to have an
22-a6 The figure on the next page shows example in which the whole room is not illumi-
a curved (parabolic) mirror, with three parallel nated. (Rays are assumed to be absorbed if they
light rays coming toward it. One ray is approach- strike exactly at a vertex of the polygon, or if
ing along the mirror’s center line. (a) Continue they pass exactly through the plane of a mirror.)
the light rays until they are about to undergo The problem was finally solved in 1995 by
their second reflection. To get good enough accu- G.W. Tokarsky, who found an example of a room
racy, you’ll need to photocopy the page (or down- that was not illuminable from a certain point.
load the book and print the page) and draw in Figure 22-a7 shows a slightly simpler example
PROBLEMS 213

found two years later by D. Castro. If a light

source is placed at either of the locations shown
with dots, the other dot remains unilluminated,
although every other point is lit up. It is not
straightforward to prove rigorously that Castro’s
solution has this property. However, the plau-
sibility of the solution can be demonstrated as
follows.
Suppose the light source is placed at the right-
hand dot. Locate all the images formed by sin-
gle reflections. Note that they form a regular
pattern. Convince yourself that none of these
images illuminates the left-hand dot. Because Problem 22-a7.
of the regular pattern, it becomes plausible that
even if we form images of images, images of im-
ages of images, etc., none of them will ever illu-
is to artificially lower the top of the mirror by
minate the other dot.
putting a piece of tape or a post-it note where
There are various other versions of the prob-
it blocks your view of the top of your head. You
lem, some of which remain unsolved. The book
can then check whether you are able to see more
by Klee and Wagon gives a good introduction
of yourself both above and below by backing up.
to the topic, although it predates Tokarsky and
Castro’s work.
22-g1 Draw a ray diagram for the formation
References:
of an image by a convex mirror. (a) How does
G.W. Tokarsky, “Polygonal Rooms Not Illu-
the image’s distance from the mirror compare
minable from Every Point.” Amer. Math.
with the actual object’s distance from the mir-
Monthly 102, 867-879, 1995.
ror? From this comparison, determine whether
D. Castro, “Corrections.” Quantum 7, 42, Jan.
the magnification is greater than or less than one.
1997.
(b) Is the image real, or virtual? Could this mir-
V. Klee and S. Wagon, Old and New Unsolved
ror ever make the other type of image?
Problems in Plane Geometry and Number The-
ory. Mathematical Association of America,
22-g2 As discussed in question 22-g1, there
1991.
are two types of curved mirrors, concave and con-
vex. Make a list of all the possible combinations
22-d1 A man is walking at 1.0 m/s directly of types of images (virtual or real) with types
towards a flat mirror. At what speed is his sep- of mirrors (concave and convex). (Not all of
aration from his image decreasing? √ the four combinations are physically possible.)
Now for each one, use ray diagrams to deter-
22-d2 If a mirror on a wall is only big enough mine whether increasing the distance of the ob-
for you to see yourself from your head down to ject from the mirror leads to an increase or a
your waist, can you see your entire body by back- decrease in the distance of the image from the
ing up? Test this experimentally and come up mirror.
with an explanation for your observations, in- Draw BIG ray diagrams! Each diagram should
cluding a ray diagram. use up about half a page of paper.
Note that when you do the experiment, it’s Some tips: To draw a ray diagram, you need
easy to confuse yourself if the mirror is even a two rays. For one of these, pick the ray that
tiny bit off of vertical. One way to check yourself comes straight along the mirror’s axis, since its
214 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

reflection is easy to draw. After you draw the two 22-g5 The figure shows four points where rays
rays and locate the image for the original object cross. Of these, which are image points? Ex-
position, pick a new object position that results plain.
in the same type of image, and start a new ray di-
agram, in a different color of pen, right on top of
the first one. For the two new rays, pick the ones
that just happen to hit the mirror at the same
two places; this makes it much easier to get the
result right without depending on extreme accu-
racy in your ability to draw the reflected rays.

22-g3 If the user of an astronomical telescope

moves her head closer to or farther away from
Problem 22-g5.
the image she is looking at, does the magnifi-
cation change? Does the angular magnification
change? Explain. (For simplicity, assume that
22-g6 Here’s a game my kids like to play. I
no eyepiece is being used.)
sit next to a sunny window, and the sun reflects
. Solution, p. 241
from the glass on my watch, making a disk of
22-g4 In the figure, only the image of my light on the wall or floor, which they pretend to
forehead was located by drawing rays. Either chase as I move it around. Is the spot a disk be-
photocopy the figure or download the book and cause that’s the shape of the sun, or because it’s
print out the relevant page. On this copy of the the shape of my watch? In other words, would a
figure, make a new set of rays coming from my square watch make a square spot, or do we just
chin, and locate its image. To make it easier to have a circular image of the circular sun, which
judge the angles accurately, draw rays from the will be circular no matter what?
chin that happen to hit the mirror at the same
points where the two rays from the forehead were 22-g7 Apply the equation M = di /do to the
shown hitting it. By comparing the locations of case of a flat mirror.
the chin’s image and the forehead’s image, verify . Solution, p. 241
that the image is actually upside-down, as shown 22-g8 Find the focal length of the mirror in
in the original figure. problem 22-a6 . √

22-g9 Rank the focal lengths of the mirrors

in the figure, from shortest to longest. Explain.

22-g10 (a) A converging mirror with a focal

length of 20 cm is used to create an image, using
an object at a distance of 10 cm. Is the image
real, or is it virtual? (b) How about f = 20 cm
and do = 30 cm? (c) What if it was a diverging
mirror with f = 20 cm and do = 10 cm? (d) A
Problem 22-g4. diverging mirror with f = 20 cm and do = 30
cm?
. Solution, p. 241
PROBLEMS 215

of which is twice as far as the other.

. Solution, p. 241
22-g12 (a) Find a case where the magnifica-
tion of a curved mirror is infinite. Is the angular
magnification infinite from any realistic viewing
position? (b) Explain why an arbitrarily large
magnification can’t be achieved by having a suf-
ficiently small value of do .
. Solution, p. 241
22-g13 A concave surface that reflects sound
waves can act just like a converging mirror. Sup-
pose that, standing near such a surface, you are
able to find a point where you can place your
head so that your own whispers are focused back
on your head, so that they sound loud to you.
Given your distance to the surface, what is the
surface’s focal length? √

22-g14 The figure shows a device for con-

structing a realistic optical illusion. Two mir-
rors of equal focal length are put against each
other with their silvered surfaces facing inward.
Problem 22-g9. A small object placed in the bottom of the cav-
ity will have its image projected in the air above.
The way it works is that the top mirror produces
a virtual image, and the bottom mirror then cre-
22-g11 (a) Make up a numerical example of ates a real image of the virtual image. (a) Show
a virtual image formed by a converging mirror that if the image is to be positioned as shown, at
with a certain focal length, and determine the the mouth of the cavity, then the focal length of
magnification. (You will need the result of prob- the mirrors is related to the dimension h via the
lem ??.) Make sure to choose values of do and equation
f that would actually produce a virtual image,
1 1 1
not a real one. Now change the location of the = + −1 .
f h

1 1
object a little bit and redetermine the magnifi- h+ h − f
cation, showing that it changes. At my local de-
partment store, the cosmetics department sells (b) Restate the equation in terms of a single vari-
hand mirrors advertised as giving a magnifica- able x = h/f , and show that there are two solu-
tion of 5 times. How would you interpret this? tions for x. Which solution is physically consis-
(b) Suppose a Newtonian telescope is being tent with the assumptions of the calculation?
used for astronomical observing. Assume for
simplicity that no eyepiece is used, and assume 22-g15 (a) A converging mirror is being used
a value for the focal length of the mirror that to create a virtual image. What is the range
would be reasonable for an amateur instrument of possible magnifications? (b) Do the same for
that is to fit in a closet. Is the angular magnifi- the other types of images that can be formed by
cation different for objects at different distances? curved mirrors (both converging and diverging).
For example, you could consider two planets, one
216 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

Geometrically, the linkage is a mechanical im-

plementation of the ancient problem of inversion
in a circle. Considering the case in which the
rhombus is folded flat, let the k be the distance
from O to the point where P and P0 coincide.
Form the circle of radius k with its center at O.
As P and P0 move in and out, points on the inside
of the circle are always mapped to points on its
Problem 22-g14. outside, such that rr0 = k 2 . That is, the linkage
is a type of analog computer that exactly solves
the problem of finding the inverse of a number
r. Inversion in a circle has many remarkable geo-
22-g16 A diverging mirror of focal length f is
metrical properties, discussed in H.S.M. Coxeter,
fixed, and faces down. An object is dropped from
Introduction to Geometry, Wiley, 1961. If a pen
the surface of the mirror, and falls away from it
is inserted through a hole at P, and P0 is traced
with acceleration g. The goal of the problem is
over a geometrical figure, the Peaucellier linkage
to find the maximum velocity of the image.
can be used to draw a kind of image of the figure.
(a) Describe the motion of the image verbally,
A related problem is the construction of pic-
and explain why we should expect there to be a
tures, like the one in the bottom panel of the
maximum velocity.
figure, called anamorphs. The drawing of the
(b) Use arguments based on units to determine
column on the paper is highly distorted, but
the form of the solution, up to an unknown unit-
when the reflecting cylinder is placed in the cor-
less multiplicative constant.
rect spot on top of the page, an undistorted
(c) Complete the solution by determining the
image is produced inside the cylinder. (Wide-
unitless constant. √ format movie technologies such as Cinemascope
are based on similar principles.)
22-g17 A converging mirror has focal length
Show that the Peaucellier linkage does not
f . An object is located at a distance (1 + )f
convert correctly between an image and its
from the mirror, where is small. Find the dis-
anamorph, and design a modified version of the
tance of the image from the mirror, simplifying
linkage that does. Some knowledge of analytic
your result as much as possible by using the as-
geometry will be helpful.
sumption that is small.

22-g18 A mechanical linkage is a device that 22-j1 Diamond has an index of refraction of
changes one type of motion into another. The 2.42, and part of the reason diamonds sparkle
most familiar example occurs in a gasoline car’s is that this encourages a light ray to undergo
engine, where a connecting rod changes the lin- many total internal reflections before it emerges.
ear motion of the piston into circular motion (a) Calculate the critical angle at which total in-
of the crankshaft. The top panel of the figure ternal reflection occurs in diamond. (b) Explain
shows a mechanical linkage invented by Peaucel- the interpretation of your result: Is it measured
lier in 1864, and independently by Lipkin around from the normal, or from the surface? Is it a
the same time. It consists of six rods joined by minimum angle for total internal reflection, or
hinges, the four short ones forming a rhombus. is it a maximum? How would the critical angle
Point O is fixed in space, but the apparatus is have been different for a substance such as glass
free to rotate about O. Motion at P is trans- or plastic, with a lower index of refraction? √
formed into a different motion at P0 (or vice
versa).
PROBLEMS 217

. Solution, p. 242
22-j4 The intensity of a beam of light is de-
fined as the power per unit area incident on a
perpendicular surface. Suppose that a beam of
light in a medium with index of refraction n
reaches the surface of the medium, with air on
the outside. Its incident angle with respect to the
normal is θ. (All angles are in radians.) Only a
fraction f of the energy is transmitted, the rest
being reflected. Because of this, we might ex-
pect that the transmitted ray would always be
less intense than the incident one. But because
the transmitted ray is refracted, it becomes nar-
rower, causing an additional change in intensity
by a factor g > 1. The product of these factors
I = f g can be greater than one. The purpose of
this problem is to estimate the maximum amount
of intensification.
Problem 22-g18.
We will use the small-angle approximation θ 1
freely, in order to make the math tractable. In
our previous studies of waves, we have only stud-
22-j2 Under ordinary conditions, gases have ied the factor f in the one-dimensional case
indices of refraction only a little greater than where θ = 0. The generalization to θ 6= 0 is
that of vacuum, i.e., n = 1 + , where is some rather complicated and depends on the polar-
small number. Suppose that a ray crosses a ization, but for unpolarized light, we can use
boundary between a region of vacuum and a re- Schlick’s approximation,
gion in which the index of refraction is 1 + .
Find the maximum angle by which such a ray f (θ) = f (0)(1 − cos θ)5 ,
can ever be deflected, in the limit of small .√
where the value of f at θ = 0 is found as in prob-
lem 13-d7 on p. 154.
22-j3 In an experiment to measure the un- (a) Using small-angle approximations, obtain an
known index of refraction n of a liquid, you send expression for g of the form g ≈ 1 + P θ2 , and
a laser beam from air into a tank filled with the find the constant P .
liquid. Let φ be the angle of the beam relative to (b) Find an expression for I that includes the two
the normal while in the air, and let θ be the an- leading-order terms in θ. We will call this expres-
gle in the liquid. You can set φ to any value you sion I2 . Obtain a simple expression for the angle
like by aiming the laser from an appropriate di- at which I2 is maximized. As a check on your
rection, and you measure θ as a result. We wish work, you should find that for n = 1.3, θ = 63◦ .
to plan such an experiment so as to minimize (Trial-and-error maximization of I gives 60◦ .)
the error dn in the result of the experiment, for (c) Find an expression for the maximum value of
a fixed error dθ in the measurement of the angle I2 . You should find that for n = 1.3, the maxi-
in the liquid. We assume that there is no signif- mum intensification is 31%.
icant contribution to the error from uncertainty
in the index of refraction of air (which is very 22-j5 Prove that the principle of least time
close to 1) or from the angle φ. Find dn in terms leads to Snell’s law.
of dθ, and determine the optimal conditions.
218 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

22-m1 When you take pictures with a cam- parts closer to the center. It might seem like it
era, the distance between the lens and the film should be the other way around, since the rays
or chip has to be adjusted, depending on the dis- at the edge pass through less glass — shouldn’t
tance at which you want to focus. This is done they be affected less? In your answer:
by moving the lens. If you want to change your
focus so that you can take a picture of something • Include a ray diagram showing a huge, full-
farther away, which way do you have to move the page, close-up view of the relevant part of
lens? Explain using ray diagrams. [Based on a the lens.
problem by Eric Mazur.] • Make use of the fact that the front and
back surfaces aren’t always parallel; a lens
22-m2 A diverging lens with f = 30 cm is in which the front and back surfaces are al-
forming an image of an object. The object is ways parallel doesn’t focus light at all, so if
60 cm from the lens. (a) Draw a ray diagram, your explanation doesn’t make use of this
and label the image on the diagram. (b) Is the fact, your argument must be incorrect.
image real, or virtual? Explain. (c) Calculate
the position of the image. • Make sure your argument still works even if
the rays don’t come in parallel to the axis
22-m3 Nearsighted people wear glasses whose or from a point on the axis.
lenses are diverging. (a) Draw a ray diagram.
. Solution, p. 242
For simplicity pretend that there is no eye behind
the glasses. (b) If the focal length of the lens is
50.0 cm, and the person is looking at an object
at a distance of 80.0 cm, locate the image. √

22-m4 Suppose a converging lens is con-

structed of a type of plastic whose index of re-
fraction is less than that of water. How will the
lens’s behavior be different if it is placed under-
water?
. Solution, p. 242
22-m5 There are two main types of tele-
scopes, refracting (using a lens) and reflecting
(using a mirror). (Some telescopes use a mix-
ture of the two types of elements: the light first
encounters a large curved mirror, and then goes
through an eyepiece that is a lens. To keep things
simple, assume no eyepiece is used.) What im-
plications would the color-dependence of focal
length have for the relative merits of the two
types of telescopes? Describe the case where an
Problem 22-m6.
image is formed of a white star. You may find it
helpful to draw a ray diagram.
22-m7 When swimming underwater, why is
22-m6 Based on Snell’s law, explain why rays your vision made much clearer by wearing gog-
of light passing through the edges of a converging gles with flat pieces of glass that trap air behind
lens are bent more than rays passing through them? [Hint: You can simplify your reasoning by
PROBLEMS 219

considering the special case where you are look- (b) What will happen with lenses 2, 3, and 4?
ing at an object far away, and along the optic Explain. Drawings are not necessary.
axis of the eye.] . Solution, p. 243
. Solution, p. 242

Problem 22-m8.

22-m9 The drawing shows the anatomy of the

human eye, at twice life size. Find the radius of
curvature of the outer surface of the cornea by
measurements on the figure, and then derive the
focal length of the air-cornea interface, where al-
most all the focusing of light occurs. You will
need to use physical reasoning to modify the lens-
maker’s equation for the case where there is only
a single refracting surface. Assume that the in-
dex of refraction of the cornea is essentially that
of water. √

Problem 22-m7. 22-m10 (a) Light is being reflected diffusely

from an object 1.000 m underwater. The light
that comes up to the surface is refracted at the
22-m8 The figure shows four lenses. Lens 1 water-air interface. If the refracted rays all ap-
has two spherical surfaces. Lens 2 is the same pear to come from the same point, then there
as lens 1 but turned around. Lens 3 is made by will be a virtual image of the object in the wa-
cutting through lens 1 and turning the bottom ter, above the object’s actual position, which will
around. Lens 4 is made by cutting a central circle be visible to an observer above the water. Con-
out of lens 1 and recessing it. sider three rays, A, B and C, whose angles in the
(a) A parallel beam of light enters lens 1 from water with respect to the normal are θi = 0.000◦ ,
the left, parallel to its axis. Reasoning based 1.000◦ and 20.000◦ respectively. Find the depth
on Snell’s law, will the beam emerging from the of the point at which the refracted parts of A and
lens be bent inward, or outward, or will it remain B appear to have intersected, and do the same
parallel to the axis? Explain your reasoning. As for A and C. Show that the intersections are at
part of your answer, make a huge drawing of one nearly the same depth, but not quite. [Check:
small part of the lens, and apply Snell’s law at The difference in depth should be about 4 cm.]
both interfaces. Recall that rays are bent more if (b) Since all the refracted rays do not quite
they come to the interface at a larger angle with appear to have come from the same point, this
respect to the normal. is technically not a virtual image. In practical
220 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

terms, what effect would this have on what you to make a properly developed picture, i.e., one
see? that is not under- or overexposed? [Based on a
(c) In the case where the angles are all small, problem by Arnold Arons.]
use algebra and trig to show that the refracted . Solution, p. 243
rays do appear to come from the same point, and
find an equation for the depth of the virtual im-
age. Do not put in any numerical values for the
angles or for the indices of refraction — just keep
them as symbols. You will need the approxima-
tion sin θ ≈ tan θ ≈ θ, which is valid for small
angles measured in radians.

22-m11 Two standard focal lengths for cam-

era lenses are 50 mm (standard) and 28 mm
(wide-angle). To see how the focal lengths re-
late to the angular size of the field of view, it
is helpful to visualize things as represented in
the figure. Instead of showing many rays com-
Problem 22-m11.
ing from the same point on the same object, as
we normally do, the figure shows two rays from
two different objects. Although the lens will in- 22-m12 A nearsighted person is one whose
tercept infinitely many rays from each of these eyes focus light too strongly, and who is therefore
points, we have shown only the ones that pass unable to relax the lens inside her eye sufficiently
through the center of the lens, so that they suffer to form an image on her retina of an object that
no angular deflection. (Any angular deflection at is too far away.
the front surface of the lens is canceled by an op- (a) Draw a ray diagram showing what happens
posite deflection at the back, since the front and when the person tries, with uncorrected vision,
back surfaces are parallel at the lens’s center.) to focus at infinity.
What is special about these two rays is that they (b) What type of lenses do her glasses have?
are aimed at the edges of one 35-mm-wide frame Explain.
of film; that is, they show the limits of the field (c) Draw a ray diagram showing what happens
of view. Throughout this problem, we assume when she wears glasses. Locate both the image
that do is much greater than di . (a) Compute formed by the glasses and the final image.
the angular width of the camera’s field of view (d) Suppose she sometimes uses contact lenses
when these two lenses are used. (b) Use small- instead of her glasses. Does the focal length of
angle approximations to find a simplified equa- her contacts have to be less than, equal to, or
tion for the angular width of the field of view, greater than that of her glasses? Explain.
θ, in terms of the focal length, f , and the width
of the film, w. Your equation should not have
any trig functions in it. Compare the results of 22-m13 Fred’s eyes are able to focus on
this approximation with your answers from part things as close as 5.0 cm. Fred holds a mag-
a. (c) Suppose that we are holding constant the nifying glass with a focal length of 3.0 cm at a
aperture (amount of surface area of the lens be- height of 2.0 cm above a flatworm. (a) Locate the
ing used to collect light). When switching from image, and find the magnification. (b) Without
a 50-mm lens to a 28-mm lens, how many times the magnifying glass, from what distance would
longer or shorter must the exposure be in order Fred want to view the flatworm to see its details
PROBLEMS 221

as well as possible? With the magnifying glass? in order to label which fringe was which? La-
(c) Compute the angular magnification. bel the fringes on your sketch using the values of
that variable.
22-m14 The figure shows a lens with surfaces
that are curved, but whose thickness is constant 22-q2 Match gratings A-C with the diffrac-
along any horizontal line. Use the lensmaker’s tion patterns 1-3 that they produce. Explain.
equation to prove that this “lens” is not really a
lens at all. 22-q3 The figure below shows two diffraction
. Solution, p. 243 patterns. The top one was made with yellow
light, and the bottom one with red. Could the
22-m15 Zahra likes to play practical jokes on slits used to make the two patterns have been
the friends she goes hiking with. One night, by the same?
a blazing camp fire, she stealthily uses a lens of
focal length f to gather light from the fire and 22-q4 The figure on p. ?? shows a diffrac-
make a hot spot on Becky’s neck. (a) Draw a tion pattern made by a double slit, along with
ray diagram and set up the equation for the im- an image of a meter stick to show the scale. The
age location, inferring the correct plus and minus slits were 146 cm away from the screen on which
signs from the diagram. (b) Let A be the dis- the diffraction pattern was projected. The spac-
tance from the lens to the campfire, and B the ing of the slits was 0.050 mm. What was the
distance from the lens to Becky’s neck. Consider wavelength of the light?
the following nine possibilities: √

B
22-q5 Why would blue or violet light be the
<f =f >f
best for microscopy?
<f
. Solution, p. 244
A =f
>f 22-q6 The figure below shows two diffraction
By reasoning about your equation from part a, patterns, both made with the same wavelength
determine which of these are possible and which of red light. (a) What type of slits made the pat-
are not. terns? Is it a single slit, double slits, or some-
. Solution, p. 244 thing else? Explain. (b) Compare the dimen-
sions of the slits used to make the top and bot-
22-m16 It would be annoying if your eye- tom pattern. Give a numerical ratio, and state
glasses produced a magnified or reduced image. which way the ratio is, i.e., which slit pattern
Prove that when the eye is very close to a lens, was the larger one. Explain.
and the lens produces a virtual image, the angu- . Solution, p. 244
lar magnification is always approximately equal 22-q7 When white light passes through a
to 1 (regardless of whether the lens is diverging diffraction grating, what is the smallest value of
or converging). m for which the visible spectrum of order m over-
laps the next one, of order m + 1? (The visible
22-q1 The figure shows a diffraction pattern spectrum runs from about 400 nm to about 700
made by a double slit, along with an image of nm.)
a meter stick to show the scale. Sketch the
diffraction pattern from the figure on your paper. 22-q8 For star images such as the ones in fig-
Now consider the four variables in the equation ure ??, estimate the angular width of the diffrac-
λ/d = sin θ/m. Which of these are the same for tion spot due to diffraction at the mouth of the
all five fringes, and which are different for each telescope. Assume a telescope with a diameter
fringe? Which variable would you naturally use of 10 meters (the largest currently in existence),
222 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS

Problem 22-q9.

22-q10 The beam of a laser passes through

a diffraction grating, fans out, and illuminates a
wall that is perpendicular to the original beam,
lying at a distance of 2.0 m from the grating.
The beam is produced by a helium-neon laser,
and has a wavelength of 694.3 nm. The grat-
ing has 2000 lines per centimeter. (a) What
is the distance on the wall between the central
maximum and the maxima immediately to its
Problem 22-m14.
right and left? (b) How much does your answer
change when you use the small-angle approxima-
tions θ ≈ sin θ ≈ tan θ? √

Problem 22-m15. 22-q11 Ultrasound, i.e., sound waves with

frequencies too high to be audible, can be used
for imaging fetuses in the womb or for breaking
up kidney stones so that they can be eliminated
and light with a wavelength in the middle of the by the body. Consider the latter application.
visible range. Compare with the actual angu- Lenses can be built to focus sound waves, but be-
lar size of a star of diameter 109 m seen from a cause the wavelength of the sound is not all that
distance of 1017 m. What does this tell you? small compared to the diameter of the lens, the
. Solution, p. 244 sound will not be concentrated exactly at the ge-
22-q9 The figure below shows three diffrac- ometrical focal point. Instead, a diffraction pat-
tion patterns. All were made under identical tern will be created with an intense central spot
conditions, except that a different set of double surrounded by fainter rings. About 85% of the
slits was used for each one. The slits used to power is concentrated within the central spot.
make the top pattern had a center-to-center sep- The angle of the first minimum (surrounding the
aration d = 0.50 mm, and each slit was w = 0.04 central spot) is given by sin θ = λ/b, where b is
mm wide. (a) Determine d and w for the slits the diameter of the lens. This is similar to the
used to make the pattern in the middle. (b) Do corresponding equation for a single slit, but with
the same for the slits used to make the bottom a factor of 1.22 in front which arises from the
pattern. circular shape of the aperture. Let the distance
. Solution, p. 244 from the lens to the patient’s kidney stone be
L = 20 cm. You will want f > 20 kHz, so that
PROBLEMS 223

the sound is inaudible. Find values of b and f

that would result in a usable design, where the
central spot is small enough to lie within a kid-
ney stone 1 cm in diameter.

22-q12 Under what circumstances could one

get a mathematically undefined result by solving
the double-slit diffraction equation for θ? Give
a physical interpretation of what would actually
be observed.
. Solution, p. 245

22-q13 When ultrasound is used for medi-

cal imaging, the frequency may be as high as
5-20 MHz. Another medical application of ul-
trasound is for therapeutic heating of tissues in-
side the body; here, the frequency is typically 1-3
MHz. What fundamental physical reasons could
you suggest for the use of higher frequencies for
imaging?
224 CHAPTER 22. OPTICS
23 More about relativity
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

23.1 More about relativity

References:
• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-
ter.com, sec. 7.3
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 3, sec. 5.8-9

225
226 CHAPTER 23. MORE ABOUT RELATIVITY

√
Problems part a usable in SI units.

23-a1 (a) A free neutron (as opposed to a

neutron bound into an atomic nucleus) is unsta- 23-a3 (a) A charged particle is surrounded by
ble, and undergoes beta decay (which you may a uniform electric field. Starting from rest, it is
want to review). The masses of the particles in- accelerated by the field to speed v after traveling
volved are as follows: a distance d. Now it is allowed to continue for
neutron 1.67495 × 10−27 kg a further distance 3d, for a total displacement
proton 1.67265 × 10−27 kg from the start of 4d. What speed will it reach,
electron 0.00091 × 10−27 kg assuming newtonian physics?
antineutrino < 10−35 kg (b) Find the relativistic result for the case of v =
Find the energy released in the decay of a free √ c/2.
neutron.
(b) Neutrons and protons make up essentially
all of the mass of the ordinary matter around us. 23-a4 Expand the equation K = m(γ−1) in a
We observe that the universe around us has no Taylor series, and find the first two nonvanishing
free neutrons, but lots of free protons (the nu- terms. Explain why the vanishing terms are the
clei of hydrogen, which is the element that 90% ones that should vanish physically. Show that
of the universe is made of). We find neutrons the first term is the nonrelativistic expression for
only inside nuclei along with other neutrons and kinetic energy.
protons, not on their own.
If there are processes that can convert neu- 23-a5 Consider the relativistic relation for
trons into protons, we might imagine that there momentum as a function of velocity (for a parti-
could also be proton-to-neutron conversions, and cle with nonzero mass). Expand this in a Taylor
indeed such a process does occur sometimes in series, and find the first two nonvanishing terms.
nuclei that contain both neutrons and protons: Explain why the vanishing terms are the ones
a proton can decay into a neutron, a positron, that should vanish physically. Show that the first
and a neutrino. A positron is a particle with the term is the newtonian expression.
same properties as an electron, except that its
electrical charge is positive. A neutrino, like an
23-a6 Expand the relativistic equation for
antineutrino, has negligible mass.
the longitudinal Doppler shift of light D(v) in
Although such a process can occur within a
a Taylor series, and find the first two nonvan-
nucleus, explain why it cannot happen to a free
ishing terms. Show that these two terms agree
proton. (If it could, hydrogen would be radioac-
with the nonrelativistic expression, so that any
tive, and you wouldn’t exist!)
relativistic effect is of higher order in v.

23-a2 (a) Find a relativistic equation for the 23-a7 (a) Let L be the diameter of our galaxy.
velocity of an object in terms of its mass and Suppose that a person in a spaceship of mass
momentum (eliminating γ). Use natural units √ m wants to travel across the galaxy at constant
(i.e., discard factors of c) throughout. speed, taking proper time τ . Find the kinetic
(b) Show that your result is approximately the energy of the spaceship. (b) Your friend is impa-
same as the nonrelativistic value, p/m, at low tient, and wants to make the voyage in an hour.
velocities. For L = 105 light years, estimate the energy in
(c) Show that very large momenta result in units of megatons of TNT (1 megaton=4×109 J).
speeds close to the speed of light.
(d) Insert factors of c to make your result from
24 Quantum physics
This is not a textbook. It’s a book of problems
meant to be used along with a textbook. Although
each chapter of this book starts with a brief sum-
mary of the relevant physics, that summary is
not meant to be enough to allow the reader to
actually learn the subject from scratch. The pur-
pose of the summary is to show what material is
needed in order to do the problems, and to show
what terminology and notation are being used.

24.1 The nucleus, half-life,

and probability
References:

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-

ter.com, sec. 8.2, 13.1
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 3, ch. 10

24.2 Wave-particle duality

References:

• Crowell, Simple Nature, lightandmat-

ter.com, sec. 13.2-3
• OpenStax University Physics, openstax.org,
v. 3, ch. 6

227
228 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

Problems Which one is it?

(b) Having decided that the original experimen-
24-a1 241
Pu decays either by electron decay tal conditions produced one specific isotope, she
or by alpha decay. (A given 241 Pu nucleus may now tries using beams of ions traveling at sev-
do either one; it’s random.) What are the iso- eral different speeds, which may cause different
topes created as products of these two modes of reactions. The following table gives the activity
decay? of the target 10, 20 and 30 minutes after the end
of the experiment, for three different ion speeds.
activity (millions of decays/s) after. . .
24-a2 The nuclear process of beta decay by 10 min 20 min 30 min
electron capture is p + e− → n + ν. One of the first ion speed 1.933 0.832 0.382
protons in the nucleus absorbs a proton. second ion speed 1.200 0.545 0.248
(a) Show that charge is conserved in this reac- third ion speed 7.211 1.296 0.248
tion. Since such a large number of decays is being
(b) Explain why electron capture doesn’t occur counted, assume that the data are only inaccu-
in hydrogen atoms. (If it did, matter wouldn’t rate due to rounding off when writing down the
exist!) table. Which are consistent with the production
of a single isotope, and which imply that more
than one isotope was being created?
24-d1 If a radioactive substance has a half-
life of one year, does this mean that it will be
completely decayed after two years? Explain. 24-d3 All helium on earth is from the de-
cay of naturally occurring heavy radioactive ele-
ments such as uranium. Each alpha particle that
24-d2 (a) A nuclear physicist is studying a is emitted ends up claiming two electrons, which
238
nuclear reaction caused in an accelerator exper- makes it a helium atom. If the original U
iment, with a beam of ions from the accelerator atom is in solid rock (as opposed to the earth’s
striking a thin metal foil and causing nuclear re- molten regions), the He atoms are unable to dif-
actions when a nucleus from one of the beam ions fuse out of the rock. This problem involves dat-
happens to hit one of the nuclei in the target. ing a rock using the known decay properties of
After the experiment has been running for a few uranium 238. Suppose a geologist finds a sam-
hours, a few billion radioactive atoms have been ple of hardened lava, melts it in a furnace, and
produced, embedded in the target. She does not finds that it contains 1230 mg of uranium and 2.3
238
know what nuclei are being produced, but she mg of helium. U decays by alpha emission,
suspects they are an isotope of some heavy el- with a half-life of 4.5 × 109 years. The subse-
ement such as Pb, Bi, Fr or U. Following one quent chain of alpha and electron (beta) decays
such experiment, she takes the target foil out of involves much shorter half-lives, and terminates
206
the accelerator, sticks it in front of a detector, in the stable nucleus Pb. Almost all natural
238
measures the activity every 5 min, and makes a uranium is U, and the chemical composition
graph (figure). The isotopes she thinks may have of this rock indicates that there were no decay
been produced are: chains involved other than that of 238 U.
isotope half-life (minutes) (a) How many alphas are emitted per decay
211 chain? [Hint: Use conservation of mass.]
Pb 36.1
214 (b) How many electrons are emitted per decay
Pb 26.8
214 chain? [Hint: Use conservation of charge.]
Bi 19.7
223 (c) How long has it been since the lava originally
Fr 21.8
239 hardened?
U 23.5
PROBLEMS 229

24-g3 A blindfolded person fires a gun at a

circular target of radius b, and is allowed to con-
tinue firing until a shot actually hits it. Any
part of the target is equally likely to get hit. We
measure the random distance r from the center
of the circle to where the bullet went in.
(a) Show that the probability distribution of r
must be of the form D(r) = kr, where k is
some constant. (Of course we have D(r) = 0
for r > b.)
(b) Determine k by requiring D to be properly √
normalized. √
(c) Find the average value of r.
(d) Interpreting your result from part c, how
does it compare with b/2? Does this make sense?
Explain.

24-g4 We are given some atoms of a certain

radioactive isotope, with half-life t1/2 . We pick
one atom at random, and observe it for one half-
life, starting at time zero. If it decays during
that one-half-life period, we record the time t at
which the decay occurred. If it doesn’t, we reset
our clock to zero and keep trying until we get an
atom that cooperates. The final result is a time
0 ≤ t ≤ t1/2 , with a distribution that looks like
the usual exponential decay curve, but with its
Problem 24-d2. tail chopped off.
(a) Find the distribution D(t), with the proper √
normalization. √
√
(b) Find the average value of t.
24-g1 What is the probability of rolling a pair (c) Interpreting your result from part b, how
of dice and getting “snake eyes,” i.e., both dice does it compare with t1/2 /2? Does this make
come up with ones? sense? Explain.

24-g2 Devise a method for testing experimen-

tally the hypothesis that a gambler’s chance of 24-g5 The speed, v, of an atom in an ideal
winning at craps is independent of her previous gas has a probability distribution of the form
2
record of wins and losses. If you don’t invoke the D(v) = bve−cv , where 0 ≤ v < ∞, c relates
mathematical definition of statistical indepen- to the temperature, and b is determined by nor-
dence, then you haven’t proposed a test. This malization.
has nothing to do with the details of the rules of (a) Sketch the distribution. √
craps, or with the fact that it’s a game played (b) Find b in terms of c.
using dice. (c) Find the average speed in terms of c, elimi-
nating b. (Don’t try to do the indefinite integral,
230 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

because it can’t be done in closed form. The rel- this is only an estimate, we can ignore the fact
evant definite integral can be found in tables or that the beam is not parallel.) √
done with computer software.) √

24-j1 Suppose we want to build an electronic 24-j6 In the photoelectric effect, electrons are
light sensor using an apparatus in which the light observed with virtually no time delay (∼ 10 ns),
strikes a metal plate and generates a current even when the light source is very weak. (A weak
through the photoelectric effect. How would its light source does however only produce a small
ability to detect different parts of the spectrum number of ejected electrons.) The purpose of this
depend on the type of metal used in the capaci- problem is to show that the lack of a significant
tor plates? time delay contradicted the classical wave theory
of light, so throughout this problem you should
put yourself in the shoes of a classical physicist
24-j2 The photoelectric effect can occur
and pretend you don’t know about photons at
not just for metal cathodes but for any sub-
all. At that time, it was thought that the elec-
stance, including living tissue. Ionization of
tron might have a radius on the order of 10−15 m.
DNA molecules can cause cancer or birth defects.
(Recent experiments have shown that if the elec-
If the energy required to ionize DNA is on the
tron has any finite size at all, it is far smaller.)
same order of magnitude as the energy required
(a) Estimate the power that would be soaked up
to produce the photoelectric effect in a metal,
by a single electron in a beam of light with an
which of the following types of electromagnetic √
intensity of 1 mW/m2 .
waves might pose such a hazard? Explain.
60 Hz waves from power lines (b) The energy, Es , required for the electron to
100 MHz FM radio escape through the surface of the cathode is on
microwaves from a microwave oven the order of 10−19 J. Find how long it would take
visible light the electron to absorb this amount of energy, and
ultraviolet light explain why your result constitutes strong evi-
x-rays dence that there is something wrong with the
classical theory. √
24-j3 When light is reflected from a mirror,
perhaps only 80% of the energy comes back. One
24-j7
could try to explain this in two different ways: (a) A radio transmitter radiates power
P in all directions, so that the energy spreads
(1) 80% of the photons are reflected, or (2) all
out spherically. Find the energy density at √a
the photons are reflected, but each loses 20% of
its energy. Based on your everyday knowledgedistance r.
(b) Let the wavelength be λ. As described in ex-
about mirrors, how can you tell which interpreta-
ample ?? on p. ??, find the number of photons
tion is correct? [Based on a problem from PSSC √
Physics.] in a volume λ3 at this distance r.
(c) For a 1000 kHz AM radio transmitting sta-
24-j4 Give a numerical comparison of the tion, assuming reasonable values of P and r, ver-
number of photons per second emitted by ify, as claimed in the example, that the result
a hundred-watt FM radio transmitter and a from part b is very large.
hundred-watt lightbulb. √
24-m1 In a television, suppose the electrons
24-j5 The beam of a 100 W overhead projec- are accelerated from rest through a voltage dif-
tor covers an area of 1 m × 1 m when it hits the ference of 104 V. What is their final wavelength?
screen 3 m away. Estimate the number of pho- √

tons that are in flight at any given time. (Since

PROBLEMS 231

24-m2 Use the Heisenberg uncertainty prin- allowed region, and we expect it to tail off in the
ciple to estimate the minimum velocity of a pro- classically forbidden regions to the right and left.
ton or neutron in a 208 Pb nucleus, which has a Since the shape of U (x) is a parabola, not a se-
diameter of about 13 fm (1 fm=10−15 m). As- ries of flat steps as in figure ?? on page ??, the
sume that the speed is nonrelativistic, and then wavy part in the middle will not be a sine wave,
check at the end whether this assumption was and the tails will not be exponentials.
warranted. √
(a) Show that there is a solution to the
Schrödinger equation of the form
24-m3 Find the energy of a particle in a one- 2
dimensional box of length L, expressing your re- Ψ(x) = e−bx ,
sult in terms of L, the particle’s mass m, the
number of peaks and valleys n in the wavefunc- and relate b to k, m, and ~. To do this, calculate
tion, and fundamental constants. the second derivative, plug the result into the
√ Schrödinger equation, and then find what value
of b would make the equation valid for all val-
24-m4 A free electron that contributes to ues of x. This wavefunction turns out to be the
the current in an ohmic material typically has ground state. Note that this wavefunction is not
a speed of 105 m/s (much greater than the drift properly normalized — don’t worry about that.
velocity). (b) Sketch a graph showing what this wavefunc-
(a) Estimate its de Broglie wavelength, in nm. √ tion looks like.
(c) Let’s interpret b. If you changed b, how would
(b) If a computer memory chip contains 108 elec- the wavefunction look different? Demonstrate by
tric circuits in a 1 cm2 area, estimate the linear
√ sketching two graphs, one for a smaller value of
size, in nm, of one such circuit. b, and one for a larger value.
(c) Based on your answers from parts a and b, (d) Making k greater means making the atom
does an electrical engineer designing such a chip more tightly bound. Mathematically, what hap-
need to worry about wave effects such as diffrac- pens to the value of b in your result from part
tion? a if you make k greater? Does this make sense
(d) Estimate the maximum number of electric physically when you compare with part c?
circuits that can fit on a 1 cm2 computer chip √

before quantum-mechanical effects become im-

portant. 24-m6 Estimate the angular momentum of a
spinning basketball, in units of ~. Explain how
24-m5 In classical mechanics, an interaction this result relates to the correspondence princi-
energy of the form U (x) = 12 kx2 gives a har- ple.
monic oscillator: the particle
p moves back and
forth at a frequency ω = k/m. This form for 24-m7 Before the quantum theory, experi-
U (x) is often a good approximation for an indi- mentalists noted that in many cases, they would
vidual atom in a solid, which can vibrate around find three lines in the spectrum of the same
its equilibrium position at x = 0. (For sim- atom that satisfied the following mysterious rule:
plicity, we restrict our treatment to one dimen- 1/λ = 1/λ + 1/λ . Explain why this would oc-
1 2 3
sion, and we treat the atom as a single parti- cur. Do not use reasoning that only works for hy-
cle rather than as a nucleus surrounded by elec- drogen — such combinations occur in the spectra
trons). The atom, however, should be treated of all elements. [Hint: Restate the equation in
quantum-mechanically, not clasically. It will terms of the energies of photons.]
have a wave function. We expect this wave func-
tion to have one or more peaks in the classically
232 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

24-m8 The wavefunction of the electron in 24-m12 The electron, proton, and neutron
the ground state of a hydrogen atom, shown in were discovered, respectively, in 1897, 1919, and
the top left of figure ?? on p. ??, is 1932. The neutron was late to the party, and
some physicists felt that it was unnecessary to
Ψ = π −1/2 a−3/2 e−r/a , consider it as fundamental. Maybe it could be
explained as simply a proton with an electron
where r is the distance from the proton, and
2 2 −11 trapped inside it. The charges would cancel out,
a = ~ /kme = 5.3 × 10 m is a constant that
giving the composite particle the correct neutral
sets the size of the wave. The figure doesn’t
charge, and the masses at least approximately
show the proton; let’s take the proton to be a
made sense (a neutron is heavier than a proton).
sphere with a radius of b = 0.5 fm.
(a) Given that the diameter of a proton is on the
(a) Reproduce figure ?? in a rough sketch, and
order of 10−15 m, use the Heisenberg uncertainty
indicate, relative to the size of your sketch, some
principle to estimate the trapped electron’s min- √
idea of how big a and b are.
imum momentum.
(b) Calculate symbolically, without plugging in
(b) Find the electron’s minimum kinetic energy. √
numbers, the probability that at any moment,
the electron is inside the proton. [Hint: Does
(c) Show via E = mc2 that the proposed ex-
it matter if you plug in r = 0 or r = b in the √ planation fails, because the contribution to the
equation for the wavefunction?] √ neutron’s mass from the electron’s kinetic energy
(c) Calculate the probability numerically.
would be many orders of magnitude too large.
(d) Based on the equation for the wavefunction,
is it valid to think of a hydrogen atom as having
a finite size? Can a be interpreted as the size of
the atom, beyond which there is nothing? Or is
24-m13 Suppose that an electron, in one di-
there any limit on how far the electron can be
mension, is confined to a certain region of space
from the proton?
so that its wavefunction is given by

24-m9 Show that the wavefunction given in 0
 if x < 0
problem 24-m8 is properly normalized. Ψ = A sin(2πx/L) if 0 ≤ x ≤ L

0 if x > L

24-m10 This problem generalizes the one-
dimensional result from problem 24-m3. Determine the constant A from normalization. √
Find the energy levels of a particle in a three-
dimensional rectangular box with sides of length
a, b, and c. √
24-m14 Show that a wavefunction of the
by
24-m11 Hydrogen is the only element whose form Ψ = e sin ax is a possible solution of the
energy levels can be expressed exactly in an Schrödinger equation in two dimensions, with a
equation. Calculate the ratio λE /λF of the wave- constant potential U . Can we tell whether it
lengths of the transitions labeled E and F in would apply to a classically allowed region, or a
problem ?? on p. ??. Express your answer as classically forbidden one?
an exact fraction, not a decimal approximation.
In an experiment in which atomic wavelengths
are being measured, this ratio provides a natural,
stringent check on the precision of the results.
√
Answers
1-a1 Now the units check: m = m3 /m2 .
−3
10 g 10 kg −3 1-j1 The proportionality V ∝ L3 can be re-
134 mg × × = 1.34 × 10−4 kg stated in terms of ratios as V1 /V2 = (L1 /L2 )3 =
1 mg 1g
(1/10)3 = 1/1000, so scaling down the linear di-
1-d1 (a) Let’s do 10.0 g and 1000 g. The arith- mensions by a factor of 1/10 reduces the volume
metic mean is 505 grams. It comes out to be by 1/1000, to a milliliter.
0.505 kg, which is consistent. (b) The geomet- 1-j2
ric mean comes out to be 100 g or 0.1 kg, which
is consistent. (c) If we multiply meters by me-
1 cm
2
ters, we get square meters. Multiplying grams 1 mm × 2
= 10−2 cm2
10 mm
by grams should give square grams! This sounds
strange, but it makes sense. Taking the square
1-j3 The bigger scope has a diameter that’s ten
root of square grams (g2 ) gives grams again. (d)
times greater. Area scales as the square of the
No. The superduper mean of two quantities with
linear dimensions, so A ∝ d2 , or in the language
units of grams wouldn’t even be something with
of ratios A1 /A2 = (d1 /d2 )2 = 100. Its light-
units of grams! Related to this shortcoming is
gathering power is a hundred times greater.
the fact that the superduper mean would fail the
1-j4 The cone of mixed gin and vermouth is
kind of consistency test carried out in the first
the same shape as the cone of vermouth, but its
two parts of the problem.
linear dimensions are doubled. Translating the
1-d2 (a) They’re all defined in terms of the ra-
proportionality V ∝ L3 into an equation about
tio of side of a triangle to another. For instance,
ratios, we have V1 /V2 = (L1 /L2 )3 = 8. Since
the tangent is the length of the opposite side over
the ratio of the whole thing to the vermouth is
the length of the adjacent side. Dividing meters
8, the ratio of gin to vermouth is 7.
by meters gives a unitless result, so the tangent,
as well as the other trig functions, is unitless. 1-k1 Since they differ by two steps on the
(b) The tangent function gives a unitless result, Richter 4
scale, the energy of the bigger quake
so the units on the right-hand side had better is 10 times greater. The wave forms a hemi-
cancel out. They do, because the top of the frac- sphere, and the surface area of the hemisphere
tion has units of meters squared, and so does the over which the energy is spread is proportional √
2
bottom. to the square of its p A ∝ r , or r ∝ A,
radius,
1-d3 The final line is supposed to be an equa- which means r1 /r2 = A1 /A2 . If the amount
tion for the height, so the units of the expression of vibration was the same, then the 4
surface areas
on the right-hand side had better equal meters. must be in the ratio A 1 /A 2 = 10 , which means
2
The pi and the 3 are unitless, so we can ignore that the ratio of the radii is 10 .
them. In terms of units, the final becomes 1-p1 Directly guessing the number of jelly
beans would be like guessing volume directly.
m2 1 That would be a mistake. Instead, we start
m= 3 = .
m m by estimating the linear dimensions, in units of
This is false, so there must be a mistake in the beans. The contents of the jar look like they’re
algebra. The units of lines 1, 2, and 3 check out, about 10 beans deep. Although the jar is a
so the mistake must be in the step from line 3 to cylinder, its exact geometrical shape doesn’t re-
line 4. In fact the result should have been ally matter for the purposes of our order-of-
3V magnitude estimate. Let’s pretend it’s a rect-
h = 2. angular jar. The horizontal dimensions are also
πr

233
234 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

something like 10 beans, so it looks like the jar car covered the quarter mile in the same time but
has about 10 × 10 × 10 or ∼ 103 beans inside. the real car was moving more slowly at the end
1-q1 Let’s estimate the Great Wall’s volume, than the idealized one, the real car must have
and then figure out how many bricks that would been going faster than the idealized car at the
represent. The wall is famous because it covers beginning of the race. The real car apparently
pretty much all of China’s northern border, so has a greater acceleration at the beginning, and
let’s say it’s 1000 km long. From pictures, it less acceleration at the end. This make sense, be-
looks like it’s about 10 m high and 10 m wide, so cause every car has some maximum speed, which
the total volume would be 106 m×10 m×10 m = is the speed beyond which it cannot accelerate.
108 m3 . If a single brick has a volume of 1 liter, or 3-j2 The boat’s velocity relative to the land
10−3 m3 , then this represents about 1011 bricks. equals the vector sum of its velocity with respect
If one person can lay 10 bricks in an hour (taking to the water and the water’s velocity with respect
into account all the preparation, etc.), then this to the land,
would be 1010 man-hours.
2-k1 ∆x = 12 at√2 , so for a fixed value of ∆x, vBL = vBW + vW L .
we have t ∝ 1/ a. Translating this p into the
language of ratios gives t /t = aE /aM = If the boat is to travel straight across the river,
√ M E
i.e., along the y axis, then we need to have
3 = 1.7.
vBL,x = 0. This x component equals the sum
2-n4 (a) Other than w, the only thing with
of the x components of the other two vectors,
units that can occur in our answer is g. If we
want to combine a distance and an acceleration vBL,x = vBW,x + vW L,x ,
to produce
p a time, the only way to do so is
like w/g, possibly multiplied by a unitless con- or
stant. 0 = −|vBW | sin θ + |vW L |.
(b) It is convenient to introduce the notations L
for the length of one side of the vee and h for the Solving for θ, we find
height, so that L2 = w2 + h2 . The acceleration is
sin θ = |vW L |/|vBW |,
a = g sin θ = gh/L. To travel a distance L with
this acceleration takes time
so
s
p 2w h w
t = 2L/a = + . |vW L |
g w h θ = sin−1 .
|vBW |
Let x = h/w. For a fixed value of w, this time is 4-a1 (a) The force of gravity on an object can’t
an increasing function of x + 1/x, so we want the just be g, both because g doesn’t have units of
value of x that minimizes this expression. Taking force and because the force of gravity is different
the derivative and setting it equal to zero gives for different objects.
x = 1, or h = w. In other words, the time is (b) The force of gravity on an object can’t just be
minimized if the angle is 45◦ . m either. This again has the wrong units, and
∗
(c)
p Plugging x = 1 back in, we have t = 2t = it also can’t be right because it should depend
4 w/g, so the unitless factor was 4. on how strong gravity is in the region of space
2-p2 (a) Solving for ∆x = 12 at2 for a, we find where the object is.
√
a = 2∆x/t2 = 5.51 m/s2 . (b) v = 2a∆x = (c) If the object happened to be free-falling, then
66.6 m/s. (c) The actual car’s final veloc- the only force acting on it would be gravity, so
ity is less than that of the idealized constant- by Newton’s second law, a = F/m, where F is
acceleration car. If the real car and the idealized the force that we’re trying to find. Solving for F ,
PROBLEMS 235

we have F = ma. But the acceleration of a free- much normal force FN the climber can make on
falling object has magnitude g, so the magnitude the walls with each foot, so the frictional force
of the force is mg. The force of gravity on an can be made arbitrarily large. This means that
object doesn’t depend on what else is happening with any µ > 0, we can always get the verti-
to the object, so the force of gravity must also cal forces to cancel. The theoretical minimum
be equal to mg if the object doesn’t happen to value of µ will be determined by the need for the
be free-falling. horizontal forces to cancel, so that the climber
4-a2 (a) This is a measure of the box’s resis- doesn’t pop out of the corner like a watermelon
tance to a change in its state of motion, so it seed squeezed between two fingertips. The hori-
measures the box’s mass. The experiment would zontal component of the frictional force is always
come out the same in lunar gravity. less than the magnitude of the frictional force,
(b) This is a measure of how much gravitational which is turn is less than µFN . To find the mini-
force it feels, so it’s a measure of weight. In lu- mum value of µ, we set the static frictional force
nar gravity, the box would make a softer sound equal to µFN .
when it hit.
(c) As in part a, this is a measure of its resis- Let the x axis be along the plane that bi-
tance to a change in its state of motion: its mass. sects the two walls, let y be the horizontal di-
Gravity isn’t involved at all. rection perpendicular to x, and let z be ver-
4-a5 a = ∆v/∆t, and also a = F/m, so tical. Then cancellation of the forces in the
z direction is not the limiting factor, for the
∆v reasons described above, and cancellation in y
∆t =
a is guaranteed by symmetry, so the only issue
m∆v is the cancellation of the x forces. We have
=
F 2Fs cos(θ/2)−2FN sin(θ/2) = 0. Combining this
(1000 kg)(50 m/s − 20 m/s) with Fs = µFN results in µ = tan(θ/2).
=
3000 N
(b) For θ = 0, µ is very close to zero. That
= 10 s
is, we can always theoretically stay stuck be-
4-m1 (a) The swimmer’s acceleration is caused tween two parallel walls, simply by pressing hard
by the water’s force on the swimmer, and the enough, even if the walls are made of ice or pol-
swimmer makes a backward force on the wa- ished marble with a coating of WD-40. As θ gets
◦
ter, which accelerates the water backward. (b) close to 180 , µ blows up to infinity. We need at
The club’s normal force on the ball accelerates least some dihedral angle to do this technique,
the ball, and the ball makes a backward normal because otherwise we’re facing a flat wall, and
force on the club, which decelerates the club. (c) there is nothing to cancel the wall’s normal force
The bowstring’s normal force accelerates the ar- on our feet.
row, and the arrow also makes a backward nor- (c) The result is 99.0◦ , i.e., just a little wider
mal force on the string. This force on the string than a right angle.
causes the string to accelerate less rapidly than it
would if the bow’s force was the only one acting 5-m1 (a) By Newton’s third law, the forces
on it. (d) The tracks’ backward frictional force are F and −F . Pick a coordinate system in
slows the locomotive down. The locomotive’s which skater 1 moves in the negative x direction
forward frictional force causes the whole planet due to a force −F . Since the forces are con-
earth to accelerate by a tiny amount, which is stant, the accelerations are also constant, and
too small to measure because the earth’s mass is the distances moved by their centers of mass are
so great. ∆x1 = (1/2)a1 T 2 and ∆x2 = (1/2)a2 T 2 . The
5-d10 (a) There is no theoretical limit on how accelerations are a1 = −F/m1 and a2 = F/m2 .
236 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

We then have is converted into heat and kinetic energy when

it explodes. All we can say about the kinetic en-
`f − `0 = ∆x2 − ∆x1 ergy of the pieces is that their total is greater
than the kinetic energy before the explosion.

1 1 1
= F + T 2, 8-g3 A conservation law is about addition: it
2 m1 m2
says that when you add up a certain thing, the
resulting in total always stays the same. Funkosity would
v violate the additive nature of conservation laws,
u 2(` − ` )
u f 0 because a two-kilogram mass would have twice as
T =t
1
F m1 + m2 1 much funkosity as a pair of one-kilogram masses
moving at the same speed.
8-m3 Let m be the mass of the little puck and
(b) r M = 2.3m be the mass of the big one. All we
m m
r
= = s need to do is find the direction of the total mo-
N/kg kg·ms−2 kg−1 mentum vector before the collision, because the
(c) If the force is bigger, we expect physically total momentum vector is the same after the col-
that they will reach arm’s length more quickly. lision. Given the two components of the momen-
Mathematically, a bigger F on the bottom re- tum vector px = M v and py = mv, the direc-
sults in a smaller T . tion of the vector is tan−1 (py /px ) = 23◦ counter-
(d) If one of the masses is very small, then clockwise from the big puck’s original direction
1/m1 +1/m2 gets very big, and T gets very small. of motion.
This makes sense physically. If you flick a flea off 9-d13 The moment of inertia is I = r2 dm.
R

of yourself, contact is broken very quickly. Let the ring have total mass M and radius b.
7-m1 The proportionality
M dm
Etotal,i = Etotal,f =
2π dθ
P Ei + heati = P Ef + KEf + heatf
gives a change of variable that results in
1
mv 2 = P Ei − P Ef + heati − heatf
2 M 2π 2
Z
= −∆P E − ∆heat I= r dθ.
2π 0
s
−∆P E − ∆heat If we measure θ from the axis of rotation, then
v= 2
m r = b sin θ, so this becomes
= 6.4 m/s M b2 2π 2
Z
I= sin θ dθ.
2π 0
8-a1 Momentum is a vector. The total mo-
mentum of the molecules is always zero, since The integrand averages to 1/2 over the 2π range
the momenta in different directions cancal out on of integration, so the integral equals π. We there-
the average. Cooling changes individual molec- fore have I = 21 M b2 . This is, as claimed, half the
ular momenta, but not the total. value for rotation about the symmetry axis.
8-a2 By conservation of momentum, the total 9-g1 The pliers are not moving, so their an-
momenta of the pieces after the explosion is the gular momentum remains constant at zero, and
same as the momentum of the firework before the the total torque on them must be zero. Not only
explosion. However, there is no law of conserva- that, but each half of the pliers must have zero
tion of kinetic energy, only a law of conservation total torque on it. This tells us that the magni-
of energy. The chemical energy in the gunpowder tude of the torque at one end must be the same
PROBLEMS 237

as that at the other end. The distance from the are the same in the two situations, so F ∝ M r−2 .
axis to the nut is about 2.5 cm, and the dis- In terms of ratios, this is
tance from the axis to the centers of the palm −2
and fingers are about 8 cm. The angles are close Fc Mc rc
= .
enough to 90◦ that we can pretend they’re 90 de- Fe Me re
grees, considering the rough nature of the other
assumptions and measurements. The result is The result is 11 N.
(300 N)(2.5 cm) = (F )(8 cm), or F = 90 N. 11-d2 (a) The asteroid’s mass depends on the
10-d5 (a) If the expression 1 + by is to make cube of its radius, and for a given mass the sur-
sense, then by has to be unitless, so b has units face gravity depends on r−2 . The result is that
of m−1 . The input to the exponential function surface gravity is directly proportional to radius.
also has to be unitless, so k also has of m−1 . The Half the gravity means half the radius, or one
only factor with units on the right-hand side is eighth the mass. (b) To agree with a, Earth’s
Po , so Po must have units of pressure, or Pa. mass would have to be 1/8 Jupiter’s. We as-
(b) sumed spherical shapes and equal density. Both
planets are at least roughly spherical, so the only
dP = ρg dy way out of the contradiction is if Jupiter’s den-
1 dP sity is significantly less than Earth’s.
ρ= 11-g1 Any fractional change in r results in
g dy
Po −ky double that amount of fractional change in 1/r2 .
= e (−k − kby + b) For example, raising r by 1% causes 1/r2 to go
g
down by very nearly 2%. A 27-day orbit is 1/13.5
2
(c) The three terms inside the parentheses on of a year, so the fractional change in 1/r is
the right all have units of m−1 , so it makes sense
(4/13.5) cm 1 km
to add them, and the factor in parentheses has 2× 5 km
× 5 = 1.5 × 10−11
those units. The units of the result from b then 3.84 × 10 10 cm
look like 11-j5 Newton’s second law gives
kg Pa −1
= m F = mD aD ,
m3 m/s2
N/m2 where F is Ida’s force on Dactyl. Using Newton’s
= 2 2
m /s universal law of gravity, F= GmI mD /r2 ,and the
kg·m−1 ·s−2 equation a = v 2 /r for circular motion, we find
= ,
m2 /s2
GmI mD /r2 = mD v 2 /r.
which checks out.
11-a1 Newton’s law of gravity depends on the Dactyl’s mass cancels out, giving
inverse square of the distance, so if the two plan-
ets’ masses had been equal, then the factor of GmI /r2 = v 2 /r.
0.83/0.059 = 14 in distance would have caused
Dactyl’s velocity equals the circumference of its
the force on planet c to be 142 = 2.0 × 102 times
orbit divided by the time for one orbit: v =
weaker. However, planet c’s mass is 3.0 times
2πr/T . Inserting this in the above equation and
greater, so the force on it is only smaller by a
solving for mI , we find
factor of 2.0 × 102 /3.0 = 65.
11-d1 Newton’s law of gravity is F = 4π 2 r3
GM m/r2 . Both G and the astronaut’s mass m mI = ,
GT 2
238 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

so Ida’s density is
(b) Plugging in numbers, we get 5.9 × 107 m/s.
ρ = mI /V This is about 20% of the speed of light, so the
4π 2 r3 nonrelativistic assumption was good to at least
= . a rough approximation.
GV T 2
15-d1 By symmetry, the field is always directly
11-m6 (a) Based on units, we must have g = toward or away from the center. We can there-
kGλ/y, where k is a unitless universal constant. fore calculate it along the x axis, where r = x,
(b) For the actual calculation, we have and the result will be valid for any location at
Z that distance from the center. The electric field
g = dgy is minus the derivative of the potential,
dV
Z
dm E=−
=G cos θ,
r2 dx
d
x−1 e−x

where θ is the angle between the perpendicular =−
dx
and the rpvector. Then dm = λ dx, cos θ = y/r, = x−2 e−x + x−1 e−x
and r = x2 + y 2 , so
Z ∞
λ dx b At small x, near the proton, the first term domi-
g=G 2 2
·p
−∞ x + y x + y2
2
nates, and the exponential is essentially 1, so we
have E ∝ x−2 , as we expect from the Coulomb
Z ∞
= Gλy (x2 + y 2 )−3/2 dx. force law. At large x, the second term domi-
−∞
nates, and the field approaches zero faster than
Even though this has limits of integration, this an exponential.
is an indefinite integral because it contains the 16-a1 ∆t = ∆q/I = e/I = 0.16 µs
variable y. It’s nicer to clean this up by doing a 16-d5 In series, they give 11 kΩ. In parallel,
change of variable to the unitless quantity u = they give (1/1 kΩ + 1/10 kΩ)−1 = 0.9 kΩ.
x/y, giving 16-g2 It’s much more practical to measure
Z ∞ voltage differences. To measure a current, you
Gλ
g= (u2 + 1)−3/2 du. have to break the circuit somewhere and insert
y −∞ the meter there, but it’s not possible to discon-
The definite integral is the sort of thing that sane nect the circuits sealed inside the board.
people these days will do using computer soft- 16-g11 The actual shape is irrelevant; all we
ware. It equals 2. The result for the field is care about is what’s connected to what. There-
fore, we can draw the circuit flattened into a
2Gλ plane. Every vertex of the tetrahedron is adja-
g= .
y cent to every other vertex, so any two vertices to
which we connect will give the same resistance.
15-a4 (a) Conservation of energy gives Picking two arbitrarily, we have this:
UA = UB + KB
KB = UA − UB
1
mv 2 = e∆V
2 r
2e∆V This is unfortunately a circuit that cannot
v=
m be converted into parallel and series parts, and
PROBLEMS 239

that’s what makes this a hard problem! How-

ever, we can recognize that by symmetry, there is
zero current in the resistor marked with an aster-
isk. Eliminating this one, we recognize the whole
arrangement as a triple parallel circuit consist-
ing of resistances R, 2R, and 2R. The resulting
resistance is R/2.
18-d3 Note that in the Biot-Savart law, the
variable r is defined as a vector that points from
the current to the point at which the field is be-
ing calculated, whereas in the polar coordinates
used to express the equation of the spiral, the
vector more naturally points the opposite way.
This requires some fiddling with signs, which I’ll
suppress, and simply identify d` with dr.
20-a3
d` × r
Z
kI
B=
c2 r3

The vector dr has components dx = w(cos θ −

θ sin θ) and dy = w(sin θ + θ cos θ). Evaluating
the vector cross product, and substituting θ/w
for r, we find

θ(cos θ sin θ − θ sin2 θ − cos θ sin θ − θ cos2 θ) dθ

Z
kI
B=
c2 w θ3
Z
kI dθ
= 2
c w θ
kI θ2
= 2 ln
c w θ1
kI b
= 2 ln 20-a4 1, i, −1, −i
c w a
20-a5

19-d6 (a) For a material object, p = mv. The p √

|1 + i| = 12 + 12 = 2
velocity vector reverses itself, but mass is still ◦
positive, so the momentum vector is reversed. arg(1 + i) = 45
√

(b) In the forward-time universe, conservation 1 1
1 + i = |1 + i| = 1/ 2

of momentum is p1,i + p2,i = p1,f + p2,f . In
the backward-time universe, all the momenta are
1

reversed, but that just negates both sides of the arg = − arg(1 + i) = −45◦
1+i
equation, so momentum is still conserved.
20-a1 arg i = 90◦ , arg(−i) = −90◦ , arg 37 = 0 √
The real part is (1/ √2) cos(−45◦ ) = 1/2. The
20-a2 imaginary part is (1/ 2) sin(−45◦ ) = −1/2.
240 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

21-a3 (a) We have two right, but let’s do so anyway. Each pro-
ton’s average kinetic energy due to motion along
dP = ρg dy a particular axis is (1/2)kB T . If two protons
are colliding along a certain line in the center-
Z
∆P = ρg dy, of-mass frame, then their average combined ki-
netic energy due to motion along that axis is
and since we’re taking water to be incompress- 2(1/2)kB T = kB T . So in fact the factors of 2
ible, and g doesn’t change very much over 11 km cancel. We have T = ke2 /kB r.
of height, we can treat ρ and g as constants and (b) The units are K = (J·m/C2 )(C2 )/((J/K)·m),
take them outside the integral. which does work out.
(c) The numerical result is ∼ 1010 K, which as
∆P = ρg∆y suggested is much higher than the temperature
= (1.0 g/cm3 )(9.8 m/s2 )(11.0 km) at the core of the sun.
= (1.0 × 10 kg/m )(9.8 m/s )(1.10 × 10 m) 21-g1 If the full-sized brick A undergoes some
3 3 2 4
process, such as heating it with a blowtorch,
= 1.0 × 108 Pa then we want to be able to apply the equation
= 1.0 × 103 atm. ∆S = Q/T to either the whole brick or half
of it, which would be identical to B. When we
The precision of the result is limited to a few redefine the boundary of the system to contain
percent, due to the compressibility of the water, only half of the brick, the quantities ∆S and Q
so we have at most two significant figures. If are each half as big, because entropy and energy
the change in pressure were exactly a thousand are additive quantities. T , meanwhile, stays the
atmospheres, then the pressure at the bottom same, because temperature isn’t additive — two
would be 1001 atmospheres; however, this dis- cups of coffee aren’t twice as hot as one. These
tinction is not relevant at the level of approxi- changes to the variables leave the equation con-
mation we’re attempting here. sistent, since each side has been divided by 2.
(b) Since the air in the bubble is in thermal con- 22-a4 Because the surfaces are flat, you get
tact with the water, it’s reasonable to assume specular reflection. In specular reflection, all the
that it keeps the same temperature the whole reflected rays go in one direction. Unless the
time. The ideal gas law is P V = nkT , and plane is directly overhead, that direction won’t
rewriting this as a proportionality gives be the right direction to make the rays come back
to the radar station.
V ∝ P −1 ,

or −1
Vf Pf
= ≈ 103 .
Vi Pi
Since the volume is proportional to the cube of
the linear dimensions, the growth in radius is
about a factor of 10.
This is different from a normal plane, which
21-d5 (a) Roughly speaking, the thermal en-
has complicated, bumpy surfaces. These surfaces
ergy is ∼ kB T (where kB is the Boltzmann con-
give diffuse reflection, which spreads the reflected
stant), and we need this to be on the same order
rays randomly in more or less every possible di-
of magnitude as ke2 /r (where k is the Coulomb
rection.
constant). For this type of rough estimate it’s
not especially crucial to get all the factors of 22-a5 It spells “bonk.”
PROBLEMS 241

object is so close, the cone of rays is diverging

too strongly for the mirror to bring it back to
a focus. (b) Now the object distance is greater
than the focal length, so the image is real. (c),(d)
A diverging mirror can only make virtual images.
22-g11 (a) In problem #2 we found that the
equation relating the object and image distances
was of the form 1/f = −1/di + 1/do . Let’s make
f = 1.00 m. To get a virtual image we need
22-a6 (a) The rays all cross at pretty much do < f , so let do = 0.50 m. Solving for di , we
the same place, given the accuracy with which find di = 1/(1/do − 1/f ) = 1.00 m. The mag-
we can draw them. nification is M = di /do = 2.00. If we change do
(b) It could be used to cook food, for instance. to 0.55 m, the magnification becomes 2.22. The
All the sunlight is concentrated in a small area. magnification changes somewhat with distance,
(c) Put the lightbulb at the point where the rays so the store’s ad must be assuming you’ll use the
cross. The outgoing rays will then form a parallel mirror at a certain distance. It can’t have a mag-
beam going out to the right. nification of 5 at all distances.
(b) Theoretically yes, but in practical terms no.
If you go through a calculation similar to the
one in part a, you’ll find that the images of both
planets are formed at almost exactly the same di ,
di = f , since 1/do is pretty close to zero for any
astronomical object. The more distant planet
has an image half as big (M = di /do , and do is
doubled), but we’re talking about angular mag-
nification here, so what we care about is the an-
gular size of the image compared to the angular
size of the object. The more distant planet has
half the angular size, but its image has half the
angular size as well, so the angular magnification
22-g3 The magnification is the ratio of the im- is the same. If you think about it, it wouldn’t
age’s size to the object’s size. It has nothing make much sense for the angular magnification
to do with the person’s location. The angular to depend on the planet’s distance — if it did,
magnification, however, does depend on the per- then determining astronomical distances would
son’s location, because things farther away sub- be much easier than it actually is!
tend smaller angles. The distance to the actual 22-g12 (a) This occurs when the di is infinite.
object is not changed significantly, since it’s zil- Let’s say it’s a converging mirror creating a vir-
lions of miles away in outer space, but the dis- tual image, as in problems 2 and 3. Then we’d
tance to the image does change if the observer’s get an infinite di if we put do = f , i.e., the object
point of view changes. If you can get closer to is at the focal point of the mirror. The image is
the image, the angular magnification is greater. infinitely large, but it’s also infinitely far away,
22-g7 For a flat mirror, di and do are equal, so so its angular size isn’t infinite; an angular size
the magnification is 1, i.e., the image is the same can never be more than about 180◦ since you
size as the object. can’t see in back of your head!.
22-g10 (a) The object distance is less than the (b) It’s not possible to make the magnification
focal length, so the image is virtual: because the infinite by having do = 0. The image loca-
242 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

tion and object location are related by 1/f = but bends an equal amount on the way out, so
1/do − 1/di , so 1/di = 1/do − 1/f . If do is zero, it still emerges from the lens moving in the same
then 1/do is infinite, 1/di is infinite, and di is zero direction as the direction it originally had.
as well. In other words, as do approaches zero, Summarizing and systematizing these obser-
so does di , and di /do doesn’t blow up. Physi- vations, we can say that for a ray that enters the
cally, the mirror’s curvature becomes irrelevant lens at the center, where the surfaces are paral-
from the point of view of a tiny flea sitting on lel, the sum of the two deflection angles is zero.
its surface: the mirror seems flat to the flea. So Since the total deflection is zero at the center, it
physically the magnification would be 1, not in- must be larger away from the center.
finity, for very small values of do .
22-j3 We have n = sin φ/ sin θ. Do-
ing implicit differentiation, we find dn =
− sin φ(cos θ/ sin2 θ) dθ, which can be rewritten
as dn = −n cot θ dθ. This can be minimized by
making θ as big as possible. To make θ as big as
possible, we want φ to be as close as possible to
90 degrees, i.e., almost grazing the surface of the
tank.
This result makes sense, because we’re de-
pending on refraction in order to get a measure-
ment of n. At φ = 0, we get θ = 0, which pro-
vides no information at all about the index of
refraction — the error bars become infinite. The
amount of refraction increases as the angles get
bigger.
22-m4 The refracted ray that was bent closer
to the normal in the plastic when the plastic was
in air will be bent farther from the normal in
the plastic when the plastic is in water. It will
become a diverging lens.
22-m6 Refraction occurs only at the bound-
ary between two substances, which in this case
means the surface of the lens. Light doesn’t get
bent at all inside the lens, so the thickness of the
lens isn’t really what’s important. What mat-
ters is the angles of the lens’ surfaces at various
points. 22-m7 Normally, in air, your eyes do most of
Ray 1 makes an angle of zero with respect to their focusing at the air-eye boundary. When
the normal as it enters the lens, so it doesn’t get you swim without goggles, there is almost no
bent at all, and likewise at the back. difference in speed at the water-eye interface, so
At the edge of the lens, 2, the front and back light is not strongly refracted there (see figure),
are not parallel, so a ray that traverses the lens and the image is far behind the retina.
at the edge ends up being bent quite a bit. Goggles fix this problem for the following rea-
Although I drew both ray 1 and ray 2 coming son. The light rays cross a water-air boundary
in along the axis of the lens, it really doesn’t as they enter the goggles, but they’re coming in
matter. For instance, ray 3 bends on the way in, along the normal, so they don’t get bent. At
PROBLEMS 243

the air-eye boundary, they get bent the same (b) Lens 2 must act the same as lens 1. It’s di-
amount they normally would when you weren’t verging. One way of knowing this is time-reversal
swimming. symmetry: if we flip the original figure over and
then reverse the direction of the ray, it’s still a
valid diagram.
Lens 3 is diverging like lens 1 on top, and di-
verging like lens 2 on the bottom. It’s a diverging
lens.
As for lens 4, any close-up diagram we draw
of a particular ray passing through it will look
exactly like the corresponding close-up diagram
for some part of lens 1. Lens 4 behaves the same
as lens 1.
22-m11 Since do is much greater than di , the
lens-film distance di is essentially the same as f .
(a) Splitting the triangle inside the camera into
two right triangles, straightforward trigonometry
gives
w
θ = 2 tan−1
2f
for the field of view. This comes out to be 39◦
and 64◦ for the two lenses. (b) For small an-
gles, the tangent is approximately the same as
the angle itself, provided we measure everything
in radians. The equation above then simplifies
to
w
θ=
f
The results for the two lenses are .70 rad = 40◦ ,
and 1.25 rad = 72◦ . This is a decent approxima-
22-m8 (a) See the figure below. The first re-
tion.
fraction clearly bends it inward. However, the
(c) With the 28-mm lens, which is closer to
back surface of the lens is more slanted, so the
the film, the entire field of view we had with the
ray makes a bigger angle with respect to the nor-
50-mm lens is now confined to a small part of
mal at the back surface. The bending at the back
the film. Using our small-angle approximation
surface is therefore greater than the bending at
θ = w/f , the amount of light contained within
the front surface, and the ray ends up being bent
the same angular width θ is now striking a piece
outward more than inward.
of the film whose linear dimensions are smaller
by the ratio 28/50. Area depends on the square
of the linear dimensions, so all other things being
equal, the film would now be overexposed by a
factor of (50/28)2 = 3.2. To compensate, we
need to shorten the exposure by a factor of 3.2.
22-m14 One surface is curved outward and
one inward. Therefore the minus sign applies in
the lensmaker’s equation. Since the radii of cur-
vature are equal, the quantity 1/r1 − 1/r2 equals
244 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS

zero, and the resulting focal length is infinite. A wavelength of the light is relatively large com-
big focal length indicates a weak lens. An infi- pared to the size of the object the light is in-
teracting with, so red would be the worst. Blue
nite focal length tells us that the lens is infinitely
weak — it doesn’t focus or defocus rays at all. light is near the short-wavelength end of the vis-
22-m15 (a) The situation being described re- ible spectrum, which would be the best.
quires a real image, since the rays need to con- 22-q6 (a) You can tell it’s a single slit because
verge at a point on Becky’s neck. See the ray of the double-width central fringe.
diagram drawn with thick lines, showing object (b) Four fringes on the top pattern are about
location o and image location i. 23.5 mm, while five fringes on the bottom one
are about 14.5 mm. The spacings are 5.88 and
2.90 mm, with a ratio of 2.03. A smaller d leads
to larger diffraction angles, so the width of the
slit used to make the bottom pattern was almost
exactly twice as wide as the one used to make
the top one.
If we move the object farther away, to o0 the 22-q8 For the size of the diffraction blob, we
cone of rays intercepted by the lens (thin lines) have:
is less strongly diverging, and the lens is able to λ
bring it to a closer focus, at i0 . In the diagrams, ∼ sin θ
d
we see that a smaller θo leads to a larger θi , ≈θ
so the signs in the equation ±θo ± θi = θf
700 nm
must be the same, and therefore both positive, θ∼
since θf is positive by definition. The equation 10 m
−7
relating the image and object locations must be ≈ 10 radians
1/f = 1/do + 1/di .
For the actual angular size of the star, the small-
angle approximation gives
(b) The case with di = f is not possible, be-
cause then we need 1/do = 0, i.e., do = ∞. Al- 109 m
though it is possible in principle to have an ob- θ ∼ 17
10 m
ject so far away that it is practically at infinity,
= 10−8 radians
that is not possible in this situation, since Zahra
can’t take her lens very far away from the fire. The diffraction blob is ten times bigger than the
By the way, this means that the focal length f is actual disk of the star, so we can never make an
not where the focus happens — the focus hap- image of the star itself in this way.
pens at di . 22-q9 (a) The patterns have two structures, a
For similar reasons, we can’t have do = f . coarse one and a fine one. You can look up in
Since all the variables are positive, we must the book which corresponds to w and which to
have 1/do and 1/di both less than 1/f . This d, or just use the fact that smaller features make
implies that do > f and di > f . Of the nine bigger diffraction angles. The top and middle
logical possibilities in the table, only this one is patterns have the same coarse spacing, so they
actually possible for this real image. have the same w. The fine structure in the top
22-q5 You don’t want the wave properties of pattern has 7 fringes in 12.5 mm, for a spac-
light to cause all kinds of funny-looking diffrac- ing of 1.79 mm, while the middle pattern has 11
tion effects. You want to see the thing you’re fringes in 41.5 mm, giving a spacing of 3.77 mm.
looking at in the same way you’d see a big object. The value of d for the middle pattern is therefore
Diffraction effects are most pronounced when the (0.50 mm)(1.79/3.77) = 0.23 mm.
PROBLEMS 245

(b) This one has about the same d as the top

one (it’s difficult to measure accurately because
each group has only a small number of fringes),
but the coarse spacing is different, indicating a
different value of w. It has two coarse groupings
in 23 mm, i.e., a spacing of 12.5 mm. The coarse
groupings in the original pattern were about 23
mm apart, so there is a factor of two between
the w = 0.04 mm of the top pattern and the
w = 0.08 mm of the bottom one.
22-q12 The equation, solved for θ, is θ =
sin−1 (mλ/d). The sine function only ranges
from −1 to +1, so the inverse sine is undefined
for |mλ/d| > 1, i.e., |m| > d/λ. Physically, we
only get fringes out to angles of 90 degrees (the
inverse sine of 1) on both sides, corresponding to
values of m less than d/λ.
246 CHAPTER 24. QUANTUM PHYSICS
Photo credits

247
Index
acceleration third, 44
defined, 15
anamorph, 216 Peaucellier linkage, 216
angular acceleration, 70 period, 69
angular momentum, 105 potential energy, 82
angular velocity, 69, 70 power, 81
Archimedean spiral, 194 Poynting vector, 197
Archimedes’ principle, 122 pressure, 121
principle of inertia, 15
Bernoulli’s principle, 122 projectile motion, 33
pulley, 53
center of mass, 98
frame, 98 quality factor
conservation laws, 79 defined, 142
cross product, 32
cyclotron, 191 resonance
cyclotron frequency, 191 defined, 142
rotational invariance, 32
dot product, 32
Dulong-Petit law, 207 scalar, 31
shell theorem, 127
equilibrium, 106 simple machine, 53
Euler’s formula, 200 solar constant, 197
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 207
farad specific heat
defined, 167 electrons’ contribution, 207
fluid, 121 spiral
force, 43 Archimedean, 194
frame of reference symmetry, 79
inertial, 15
vector, 31
inertia velocity
principle of, 15 converting between frames, 15
in one dimension, 15
Kepler’s laws, 127 sign, 15
kinetic energy, 81 is relative, 15
Voyager space probe, 185
Laplacian, 168
Lipkin linkage, 216 weight, 44
work, 81
momentum, 97
Young’s modulus, 59
Newton’s laws
first, 43
second, 44

248