Physics Challenge for Boris Korsunsky, Column Editor

Weston High School, Weston, MA 02493

Teachers and Students korsunbo@post.harvard.edu

Solution to October 2008 Challenge

w October Surprise
Applying Newton’s second law to the system:
Challenge: Two small spheres of mass m each are attached
to the ends of a light rigid rod bent at a right angle and piv-
oted in the vertical plane at the vertex of the right angle. The Fnet = M acm , (1)
vertical part of the rod is three times as long as the horizontal
part. Initially, the rod is held at rest in the position shown in the where Fnet indicates the sum of all external forces
diagram. Find the force exerted by the rod on the pivot immedi-
on the system, acm indicates the acceleration of the
ately after the rod is released. The pivot is frictionless.
center of mass of the system, and M is the total
pivot
mass of the system that is M = 2m because the
mass of the “light rod” is neglected. In the present
case Fnet is the sum of the gravitational force on
the two spheres and the force Fps that exerts the
pivot:

Fnet = M g + Fps. (2)

Solution: According to Newton’s third law, the The force Fps can be deduced from Eqs. (1) and (2):
force Fsp that the system (s) exerts on the pivot (p)
is opposite to the force Fps that the pivot exerts on Fps = M acm – M g. (3)
the system, Fsp = –Fps. Then, we can use Newton’s
second law to first deduce Fps and so to obtain the Then, to obtain Fps it is necessary to have acm.
required force Fsp. The physical situation is repre- We note that just after the system is released, the
sented in the figure below. acceleration of the center of mass is tangent to
the circular trajectory that the center of mass will
y Fps follow during its oscillation around the pivot (the
pivot is the suspension point and the system will
l
behave as a physical pendulum). It allows us to
x relate the magnitude of this tangential acceleration
θ with the magnitude of the angular acceleration a
Fps of the system:
mg D
acm = a D, (4)
cm 3l Fnet
θ
acm where D is the distance between the pivot and the
2mg
center of mass. From the figure,

2 2
 l   3l  10
D =   +   =
l. (5)
2  2  2
Equation (4) is only valid just after the system is
mg

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 46, 2008

released at t = 0, because for t > 0 the system will acm results:
also have a centripetal acceleration pointing to the 3 1 
pivot. The angular acceleration a is obtained by us- a cm =  iˆ −
ˆj  g . (13)
ing Newton’s second law in “its rotational version.” 10 20 
We have: From Eq. (3), with g = −g ˆj , we obtain:

tnet = I a, (6) 3
Fps = 2mg  iˆ −
1 ˆj  − 2mg (− ˆj ) ,
where tnet has to be measured with respect to an  20 20 
axis that passes through the pivot and is perpen- which reduces to
dicular to the vertical plane when the system is 3 19 
contained. Since the weight of the upper mass is Fps = mg  iˆ + ˆj  .
(14)
the only force that produces a torque, the magni- 10 10 
tude of this torque can be found as: Finally, the force that the system exerts on the pivot
is
tnet = mgl . (7) 3 19 
Fsp = −mg  iˆ + ˆj  ,
(15)
Here I is the moment of inertia of the system with 10 10 
respect to the same axis: which gives its magnitude at approximately Fsp =
1.92mg.
I = 10 m2 (8)
(Submitted by Eduardo E. Rodríguez, Universidad
where we have neglected the moment of inertia of Nacional de General Sarmiento,
the two arms that the light rod forms, due to the Buenos Aires, Argentina)
assumption mrod << m. Combining Eqs. (6), (7),
and (8) we obtain We would also like to recognize the following con-
tributors:
g

a= . (9)
10l Sanjeet Singh Adarsh (PTC, Pune, India)
Thus, the magnitude of acm is André Bellemans (Université Libre de Bruxelles,
g Belgium)
acm =
. (10) Mark Brown (Cretin-Derham Hall H.S., St. Paul,
2 10
MN)
The acceleration acm is
Darío Castello (IES Front Marítim, Barcelona,
Spain)
(11)
Phil Cahill (Lockheed Martin Corporation,
Rosemont, PA)
From the figure we deduce that
F. Javier Doblas (Escuela Técnica Superior de
3 Ingenieros, Sevilla, Spain)
l
2 3
cos(θ ) = = and Don Easton (Lacombe, Alberta, Canada)
D 10 Fredrick P. Gram (Cuyahoga Community College,

1 (12) Cleveland, OH)
l Fernando Ferreira (Universidade da Beira Interior,
1
sin(θ ) = 2 = , Covilhã, Portugal)
D 10
Art Hovey (Milford, CT)
and using these expressions together with Eq. (10)

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 46, 2008

 J. Iñiguez (Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca,
Spain)
David Jones (Florida International University,
Miami, FL)
Jeff Lewis (CSU Bakersfield, Bakersfield, CA)
Stephen McAndrew (Trinity Grammar School,
Summer Hill, NSW, Australia)
Matthew W. Milligan (Farragut High School,
Knoxville, TN)
Carl E. Mungan (U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis,
MD)
Pascal Renault (John Tyler Community College,
Chester, VA)
Erwin Sucipto (Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN)
Tout Wang (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)
Carl Weaver (Chattahoochee High School, Al-
pharetta, GA)

Many thanks to all contributors and we hope to

hear from you in the future!

Send correspondence to:

Boris Korsunsky
korsunbo@post.harvard.edu

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 46, 2008