Homework Assignment #11

Physics 180
Due 7 December 2015
1. The figure below shows the velocity-versus-time graph of a particle in simple harmonic motion.
a. What is the amplitude of the oscillation?
b. What is the phase constant?
c. What is the position at t = 0 s?

2. An object in SHM oscillates with a period of 4.0 s and an amplitude of 10 cm. How long does
the object take to move from x = 0.0 cm to x = 6.0 cm?
3. Astronauts in space cannot weigh themselves by standing on a bathroom scale. Instead, they
determine their mass by oscillating on a large spring. Suppose an astronaut attaches one end
of a large spring to her belt and the other end to a hook on the wall of the space capsule. A
fellow astronaut then pulls her away from the wall and releases her. The springs length as a
function of time is shown in the figure below.
a. What is her mass if the spring constant is 240 N/m?
b. What is her speed when the springs length is 1.2 m?

Physics 180 Homework Assignment #11

4. We have just completed digging a tunnel through the center of the Earth to New Havens
antipodal point, and now want to construct a series of physics experiments. You are tasked
with doing some of the calculations for this. (Note: This continues the problem from last
week. You may want to review your answers to that)
a. A kilogram mass is dropped into the tunnel. How long does it take to return?
b. You repeat the experiment with a 2 kg mass. How does your answer to the previous
problem change?
5. A 300 g oscillator has a speed of 95.4 cm/s when its displacement is 3.0 cm, and 71.4 cm/s
when its displacement is 6.0 cm. What is the oscillators maximum speed?
6. An ice cube can slide around the inside of a vertical circular hoop of radius R. It undergoes
small-amplitude oscillations if displaced slightly from the equilibrium position at the lowest
point. Find an expression for the period of these small-amplitude oscillations.
7. A block on a frictionless table is connected as shown in the figure below to two springs having
spring constants k1 and k2 . Show that the blocks oscillation frequency is given by
q
f = f12 + fs2
where f1 and f2 are the frequencies at which it would oscillate if attached to spring 1 or
spring 2 alone.

8. The analysis of a simple pendulum assumed that the mass was a particle, with no size. A
more realistic pendulum is a small, uniform sphere of mass M and radius R at the end of a
massless string, with L being the distance from the pivot to the center of the sphere.
a. Find an expression for the period T of this pendulum.
b. Show that this expression reduces to the period of the simple pendulum when L  R.
c. Suppose M = 25 g, R = 1.0 cm, and L = 1.0 m, typical values for a real pendulum.
What is the ratio T /T0 , where T0 is the expression for the period of a simple pendulum
derived in the text?

Physics 180 Homework Assignment #11

9. The figure below shows a 200 g uniform rod pivoted at one end. The other end is attached
to a horizontal spring. The spring is neither stretched nor compressed when the rod hangs
straight down. What is the rods oscillation period? You can assume that the rods angle
from vertical is always small.

10.

a. Find the first four terms in the Taylor series expansion of functions of the form
f (x) = (c + x)n ,
where c and n are constants, about the point x = 0. (Note that a Taylor series expansion
about x = 0 is known as a Maclaurin series, but physicists rarely use that terminology.)
b. Use your result from part a to determine the Taylor series expansion of the function
f (x) = (c + x)2
about x = 0.
c. Use your result from part a to determine the Taylor series expansion of the function
f (x) = (1 + x)1/2
about x = 0.
d. Rewrite your answer to part a of Problem 8 in the form
T = T0 (1 + y)1/2 ,
where, as before, T0 is the period of a simple pendulum, and y is a function of R and
L. Use your result from part c of this problem to determine the first three terms in the
Taylor series series expansion of T about y = 0. Note that when L  R, y is small, and
we can approximate the period of the real pendulum using only the first couple of terms
in the expansion.