UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN PHY1004W Problem set 6

Department of Physics To be handed in: 10h00, Friday, 12 April 2013

1.

Consider three vectors in the x-y plane, A = 20 cm at 30, B = 40 cm at 100 and C = 60 cm at 200. Determine (i) A B (ii) A C (iii) B C (iv) A A m, B =4 If A = j 5 k j m and C = 5 j m , determine i 5 i +4 i 2 (i) A B (ii) A C (iii) B C

2.

3. (a) (b) (c)

A 5 kg mass is pushed 8 metres up a frictionless 30 slope by a 50 N force. Calculate the work done by the 50 N force. Calculate the work done by the gravitational force. 50 N Explain the meaning of the positive or negative signs in your answers above.
40 30

4.

Shown is a force-distance graph for a constantly decreasing force acting on a mass moving in the x-direction. From the graph, calculate how much work is done by this force in moving the mass from point A to point B. Write down the integral (with the appropriate numerical values) that will enable you to calculate the work done by the force in moving the block from A to B. Solve the integral. Do you get same answer as you got in (a)?

F (x) (N)
40

(a) (b)

30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20

(c)

x (m)

A
5.

A proton has a rest mass of 938.3 MeV/c2. It is accelerated from rest by a force which does 3.2 1010 J of work on it. Determine after acceleration (a) its energy; (b) its kinetic energy; (c) the magnitude of its velocity; and (d) the magnitude of its momentum. Express your answers in SI units and in eV if appropriate.

6.

You spend a day playing on the roller coaster at Ratanga Junction. At the highest point you measure the speed of the car to be 3.00 m s-1. What will the speed be at the lowest point of the ride, 32.0 m below? Express your answer in km h-1.

7.

A satellite is in orbit 100 km above the surface of the Earth. If the mass of the satellite is 200 kg, what amount of work must be done to move the satellite to a geosynchronous orbit?

8.

Communication and TV satellites are placed in circular orbit above the equator at such a radius from the Earth that the period of the satellite is 24 hours. Thus, as the Earth rotates, the satellite appears to be fixed above a point on the Earth, so that dish aerials do not need to track the motion of the satellite. Calculate the radius of such an orbit.

9.

(a) (b) (c)

A rock of mass 100 kg travels in a highly elliptical orbit. It falls towards the Sun from the Kuiper belt 6 109 km from the centre of the solar system. On its way in it collides with the Earth, transferring its kinetic energy to the surroundings. What speed is it travelling when it does so? How much energy does it deposit in the collision? Compare it to the blast of a hydrogen bomb, 4.2 1015 J. Would the collision cause significant damage? A proton (mp = 938.273 MeV/c2) and a neutron (mn = 939.566 MeV/c2) (both at rest) combine to form a deuteron, the nucleus of deuterium (heavy hydrogen). (You will probably perform this experiment in third year). In this process a gamma ray, a high energy photon, is emitted and its energy is measured to be 2.20 MeV. (The mass of the photon is of course zero). Assuming that the kinetic energy of the recoiling deuteron can be neglected, determine the mass of the deuteron. Momentum must be conserved. How are the momenta of the deuteron and photon related? Determine approximately the kinetic energy of the deuteron and show that it is indeed small compared to the energy of the photon.

10.

(a) (b)

This question is for extra credit, although all of you really should think about it. The best code submitted will receive a prize. 11. Suppose that one copper atom is vibrating at the end of a bond. Take the estimate of the spring constant that we have obtained in class. (Alternatively, look up the value of Youngs modulus for copper and calculate it.) Also, from the density and atomic mass of copper, calculate the mass of a copper atom, and the distance d between atoms. Write a Python program to model the vibration of the system by solving the equations of motion. (This is a simpler version of the planet + sun program done in lab class). As an initial condition, displace the atom by 10% of the bond length and release it from rest. You can obtain a plot of the motion with the following code fragments: from visual.graph import * # in initialisation section: graphx=gcurve(color=color.yellow) # or color.green, color.blue ... # in loop: graphx.plot(pos=(t,x)) # you need to define t and x, of course Remember that anything following a # is a comment. The comments above give you some hints. Be very careful with units! Wild behaviour of your program possibly indicates a problem with units. (a) In your program calculate and graph the velocity of the atom at each time step and hence determine the maximum speed of the atom. Start by assuming v << c. In view of your answer, do you need to reassess this? Add a force Fx = 1013vx to your program, i.e. a velocity dependent force. What do you observe? Modify your program to calculate the potential and kinetic energy of the atom at each time step. Is energy conserved during the numerical integration? To what accuracy? What is the sum of kinetic and potential energies? This can be a check on how good is your numerical integration method. Print out and attach your program to your handin. Note that help for visual is available in the IDLE help menu

(b) (c)

ab/040413