Phy 131 Classical Physics I

Homework 13
Instructor: MacKenzie Lenz
Due 12/01/21 @ 11:59 pm

1. Problem 1: Pressure
(a) What is the total force and the absolute pressure on the bottom of a swimming pool filled with
water. The pool has a width of 25.0m, a length of 10m, and a depth of 2.1m.
Solution:
First I need to look up the density of water:

⇢ = 1000kg/m3

Then I can use the equation for pressure at a specific depth to find the pressure a the bottom of
the pool.
ph = ⇢gh = 1000kg/m3 ⇥ 10m/s2 ⇥ 2.1m = 21, 000N/m2
Then I can find the absolute pressure of the pool by adding this pressure at a specific depth to
the atmospheric pressure.

pabs = patm + ph = 1.01 ⇥ 105 N/m2 + 21, 000N/m2 = 122, 000N/m2

Now I can find the force knowing that the pressure and area of the pool.

F = pA = 122, 000N/m2 ⇥ 25m ⇥ 10m = 36.6 ⇥ 106 N

(b) What is the pressure against the side of the pool near the bottom?
Solution:
The pressure against the side of the pool at the bottom is equal to the absolute pressure since
that pressure was found to be at the deepest point of the pool.

pabs = 122, 000N/m2

2. Problem 2: Buoyancy and Archimedes’s Principle

A ship is partialy submerged in water as shown in the image to
the right.
(a) Explain why the buoyant force (F B ) on a partially sub-
merged object, such as a ship like this one, acts at the
center of gravity of the fluid (before it is displaced) and
not on the center of mass of the submerged object. This
point is called the center of buoyancy.
(b) To ensure that a ship is in stable equilibrium, would it be
better if the center of buoyancy was above, below, or at the
same point as the center of mass of the object?
Solution:

(a) Explain why the buoyant force (F B ) on a partially submerged object, such as a ship like this one,
acts at the center of gravity of the fluid (before it is displaced) and not on the center of mass of
the submerged object. This point is called the center of buoyancy.

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 Archimedes principle states that when an object is partially, or fully, submerged in a fluid then
the fluid exerts a force on the object. What this means is that any small part of the surface of
the submerged object feels the force of the fluid. This force from the fluid is perpendicular to the
surface of the object and is equal to the pressure at that point multiplied by the area. Think about
this image from class as an example of this: The result of the individual, perpendicular forces

(also called contact forces) is called the force of buoyancy and will act at the center of gravity of
the displaced fluid since they are acting as the pressure from said fluid that was displaced.
(b) To ensure that a ship is in stable equilibrium, would it be better if the center of buoyancy was
above, below, or at the same point as the center of mass of the object?

To be in a stable equilibrium it would be best if the center of buoyancy was at the same point as
the center of mass of the object. This is because if it is o↵ center there would be torque on the
object that could cause it to leave equilibrium.

3. Problem 3: Pendulum Oscillations

You find a very tall tree one day and decide to measure the height of the tree using a pendulum. You
tie a small rock to a rope that is also tied to a branch at the top of the tree, so that when the rope is
vertical the rock is very close to the ground. You then release the rock from rest at an initial angle of
5 . You measure the amount of time it takes for the rock to return to your hand. Your friend performs
the same experiment with a di↵erent tree, but uses a smaller initial angle of only 2.5 . Your friend
measures the amount of time it takes for the rock to return to her hand to be half as big as the time
you found.
(a) What is the equation of motion for a pendulum undergoing simple harmonic motion? What is
the frequency? What is the period?
Solution:
The equation of motion for a pendulum undergoing simple harmonic motion is:

✓(t) = ✓1 cos(!t)

. The angular frequency of this system is:

r
g
!=
L
From this we can find the period since we know it is related to the angular frequency.
2⇡
T =
!
s
2⇡L
=
g

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 (b) Is the height of your tree greater than, less than, or equal to the height of your friend’s tree? If
there is a di↵erence in height, how much is it?
Solution:
Two things are di↵erent about the experiments: the initial angle, and the amount of time it takes
for the rock to return.qThe amount of time it takes for the rock to return is the period, which
2⇡L
we can write as T = g . This does not depend on the initial angle, but it does depend on
the height of the tree (L). Since T is smaller for my friend’s tree than for mine, L must also be
smaller for my friend (in fact, it is 0.25 times as tall because of the square root!) since g is the
same for both trees.
4. Problem 4: Simple Harmonic Oscillator: Springs
A heavy block (m2 ) is riding on top of a lighter block of mass m1 attached to a spring. The two blocks
are oscillating together with a maximum displacement from equilibrium of xi . The coefficient of static
friction between the blocks is µs . What is the largest spring constant that will not cause the upper
block to fall o↵?

(a) What are our known’s and unknown’s for this problem? Are there any assumptions we have to
make in solving this problem?
Solution:
We are looking for k and we know m2 , m1 , xi , g, and µs . We are ignoring any friction or air
resistance other than the force between the blocks so that we can treat the problem as simple
harmonic motion. Most importantly, we are assuming that the upper block does not fall o↵!
(b) Draw a Free Body Diagram of the top block when the acceleration is largest (i.e. the spring-
masses system is at maximum displacement.)
Solution:

(c) What laws or concepts will you use to solve this problem? Represent them mathematically.
Solution:
The
qequation of motion for a block undergoing simple harmonic motion is x(t) = xi cos(!t), where
k
= m1 +m2 is the angular frequency. Two derivatives of this expression gives the acceleration
of the system of both blocks: a(t) = xi ! 2 cos(!t). We also need that the static friction force is
limited by the coefficient of static friction, F fs  µs F N .
(d) Solve for the spring coefficient symbolically.
Solution:

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 Using Newton’s 2nd Law on the upper block when the displacement and acceleration are maximal:

y :F N = m2 g = m2 ay = 0 gives F N = m2 g
x :m2 ax = m2 xi ! 2 = F fs  µs F N = µs m2 g
µs (m1 + m2 )g
Solving for k gives: k 
xi
The largest this can be is when the inequality becomes an equality so...

µs (m1 + m2 )g
klargest =
xi
(e) Sensemaking: Check your units of your symbolic answer. Are they correct?
Solution:
The units for k should be N/m, since this is a spring constant (think Fspring = kx). We
can see that our answer has exactly the right form: what looks like a force in the numerator
([µs (m1 + m2 )g] = N ), and what looks like a distance in the denominator ([xi ] = m).

Extra Sensemaking: In general, we should expect that we need a bigger spring constant if we want
more mass to be able to oscillate. Thus, having m1 + m2 in the numerator makes sense because it
requires a bigger k. We can also check the special case that the blocks become frictionless µs = 0.
In this case, there are no horizontal forces on the upper block and thus no spring will be able to
keep the blocks from falling. This agrees with our answer, since we get k  0 in this limit!