Exercises 4:

1. Tiltrotor Plane The tiltrotor plane takes off and lands vertically, but its rotors tilt forward for
conventional cruising. The figure depicts the graph of the position function of a tiltrotor plane during a
test flight in the vertical takeoff and landing mode. Answer the following questions pertaining to the
motion of the plane at each of the times t0, t1, and t2:
a. Is the plane ascending, stationary, or descending?
b. Is the acceleration positive, zero, or negative?

2. Explosion of a Gas Main An explosion caused by the ignition of a leaking underground gas main blew a
manhole cover vertically into the air. The height of the manhole cover seconds after the explosion was s
= 24t – 16t 2 ft.
a. How high did the manhole cover go?
b. What was the velocity of the manhole cover when it struck the ground?

3. Stopping Distance of a Sports Car A test of the stopping distance (in feet) of a sports car was conducted
by the editors of an auto magazine. For a particular test, the position function of the car was

1 3
s  t   88t  12t 2  t
6

where is measured in seconds and t = 0corresponds to the time when the brakes were first applied.
a. What was the car’s velocity when the brakes were first applied?
b. What was the car’s stopping distance for that particular test?
c. What was the jerk at time t? At the time when the brakes were first applied?

4. Motion of a Projectile A projectile is fired from a cannon located on a horizontal plane. If we think of the
cannon as being located at the origin O of an xy-coordinate system, then the path of the projectile is

x2
y  3x 
400

where and are measured in feet.

 a. Find the value of (the angle of elevation of the gun).
b. At what point on the trajectory is the projectile traveling parallel to the ground?
c. What is the maximum height attained by the projectile?
d. What is the range of the projectile (the distance along the x-axis)?
e. At what angle with respect to the x-axis does the projectile hit the ground?

5. Deflection of a Beam A horizontal uniform beam of length L is supported at both ends and bends under
its own weight w per unit length. Because of its elasticity, the beam is distorted in shape, and the
resulting distorted axis of symmetry (shown dashed in the figure) is called the elastic curve. It can be
shown that an equation for the elastic curve is

y
w
24 EI

x 4  2 Lx 3  L3 x 
where the product EI is a constant called the flexural rigidity.

a. Find the angle that the elastic curve makes with the positive x-axis at each end of the beam in terms
of w, E, and I.
b. Show that the angle that the elastic curve makes with the horizontal at x = L/2 is zero.
c. Find the deflection of the beam at x = L/2.

6. Middle-Distance Race As they round the corner into the final (straight) stretch of the bell lap of a
middle-distance race, the positions of the two leaders of the pack, A and B, are given by

s A  t   0.063 t 2  23 t  15 t 0

and

s B  t   0.298 t 2  24 t t 0

respectively, where the reference point (origin) is taken to be the point located 300 feet from the finish
line and s is measured in feet and t in seconds. It is known that one of the two runners, A and B, was the
winner of the race and the other was the runner-up.
a. Show that B won the race.
b. At what point from the finish line did B overtake A?
c. By what distance did B beat A?
d. What was the speed of each runner as he crossed the finish line?
7. Marginal Cost of Producing Microwave Ovens A division of Ditton Industries manufactures the
“Spacemaker” model microwave oven. Suppose that the daily total cost (in dollars) of manufacturing
microwave ovens is

C  x   0.0002 x 3  0.06 x 2  120 x  6000

What is the marginal cost when x = 200? Compare the result with the actual cost incurred by the
company in manufacturing the 201st oven.

8. Marginal Revenue of an Airline The Commuter Air Service realizes a revenue of

R  x   10,000 x  100 x 2

dollars per month when the price charged per passenger is dollars.
a. Find the marginal revenue function R'.
b. Compute R'(49), R'(50), and R'(51). What do your results seem to imply?

9. Optics The equation

1 1 1
 
f p q

sometimes called a lens-maker’s equation, gives the relationship between the focal length of a thin
lens, the distance p of the object from the lens, and the distance q of its image from the lens. We can
think of the eye as an optical system in which the ciliary muscle constantly adjusts the curvature of the
cornea-lens system to focus the image on the retina. Assume that the distance from the cornea to the
retina is 2.5 cm.

a. Find the focal length of the cornea-lens system if an object located 50 cm away is to be focused on
the retina.
b. What is the rate of change of the focal length with respect to the distance of the object when the
object is 50 cm away?
10. Gravitational Force The magnitude of the gravitational force exerted by the earth on a particle of mass
m at a distance r from the center of the earth is

 GMmr
 2
if r < R
F  r   R
 GMm if r > R
 r 2

where M is the mass of the earth, R is its radius, and G is the gravitational constant.
a. Compute F '(r) for r < R and interpret your result.
b. Compute F '(r) for r > R and interpret your result.