Physics Challenge for

Teachers and Students

Solutions to January 2006 Challenge

The Springs in the Winter

Challenge: A uniform rod of mass m is suspended on
two springs as shown. The force constants of the springs
are k and 3k. During the vertical oscillations of the system,
the rod remains horizontal. Find the period of these oscil-
lations. The strings and the pulley are ideal.
the two series springs by one using the equa-
tion used for combining springs in series, i.e.,
1 1 1
= + +...
kT k1 k2
With k1 = 3k and k2 = k, the new spring will
have a spring constant of 3k/4 as shown:

3k/4 m/2
m/2
3k k

m Now, let us take this new spring and split it

into two equal springs by again using the equa-
Solution: Since the springs, strings, and pulley tion above. This leads to:
are ideal, the tension throughout is constant.
Therefore, each spring must support half the m/2 3k/2 C 3k/2 m/2
weight (or mass) of the rod. With this in mind,
we can redraw the picture linearly by removing
the pulley (which only changes the direction of
motion) as follows:
Now that we have a symmetric system, the
center (C) will remain stationary and each end
will oscillate back and forth independent of the
other (but with the same period as if the center
C was a rigid wall.) The well-known period for a
mass oscillating on a spring is
Note: We can neglect the gravitational force in
M
this problem by measuring all spring T = 2 ,
displacements from the equilibrium position K
established when the rod is hanging from the so with our new values of M = m/2 and K =
springs. 3k/2, the period of the rod becomes
Because the rod remains horizontal during m
the oscillations and the springs have different T = 2 .
stiffness, the string that wraps around the pulley 3k
oscillates back and forth. We can remove this (Contributed by H. Scott Wiley, Science
oscillation by replacing the system with one that Academy of South Texas, Weslaco, TX)
has the necessary symmetry. First, let us replace

72 THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 44, April 2006

 Many other readers also sent us the correct
solutions. We would like to recognize the fol-
lowing contributors:
Marianne Breinig (The University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, TN)
Phil Cahill (Lockheed Martin Corporation,
Rosemont, PA)
Alan J. DeWeerd (University of Redlands,
Redlands, CA)
Don Easton (Lacombe, Alberta, Canada)
Fernando Ferreira (Universidade da Beira
Interior, Covilh, Portugal)
John F. Goehl, Jr. (Barry University, Miami
Shores, FL)
Jim Guinn (Georgia Perimeter College,
Clarkston, GA)
Art Hovey (Milford, CT)
David Jones (Miami Palmetto Sr. High School,
THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 44, April 2006
Miami, FL)
Ravi Kunjwal, student (Dehradun, India)
Jos Costa Leme (High School Lanheses, Viana
do Castelo, Portugal)
Carl E. Mungan (U.S. Naval Academy,
Annapolis, MD)
National Hsinchu Girls Senior High School,
Class 217 (Taiwan, R.O.C)
Suppawong Tuarob, student (Westtown School,
Westtown, PA)
Leo H. van den Raadt (Heemstede, The
Netherlands)
Many thanks to all contributors and we hope to
hear from you in the future!
Please send correspondence to:
Boris Korsunsky
444 Wellesley St.
Weston, MA 02493-2631
korsunbo@post.harvard.edu
73