Homework 4

March 29, 2015

(1) Two blocks are of respective masses m and M are positioned as in figure 1. Let s and S be generalized coordinates
for the system.
(a) What are the generalized forces Qs and QS ?
(b) Using DAlemberts Principle find the accelerations of the blocks as a function of . Do not use any other
assumptions, such as Newtons Laws, in your calculation.

Figure 1:

E
(2) A ship is of mass m is traveling around the earth in a circle of radius rE . Let F = GmM
be the gravitational
2
rE
force of the earth that is direct inward from the ship to earth.
(a) Let be the angle the ship travels about earth. Using DAlemberts Principle, prove that = 0. Do not use any
other assumptions, such as Newtons Laws, in your proof.

(b) The result of part (a) holds true even if there are constraint forces that keep the ship at radius rE (for instance
there may be a giant track thats keeping the ships motion in a circle). Now assume that there are no constraint forces
acting on the ship. Using DAlemberts Principle, compute what must be so that the ship remains traveling in a circle
of radium of rE . Again, do not use anything but DAlemberts Principle in your calculation. When the ship travels
unconstrained at a fixed radius, it is said to be in circular orbit.
(3) Assume that a ship is in circular orbit at radius rE around earth. A particle x is moving in the plane of rotation;
in other words, assume the particle only has motion in the x y plane while the axis of the ships rotation about the
S 0 = (
earth is in the z direction. Describe the acceleration of the particle x
xS 0 , yS 0 ) with respect to an observer in the
0
ship whose reference frame is S .
(4) A person in frame S is rotating about an axis uS (t) at instantaneous speed 1 with respect to an inertial frame S.
The axis uS (t) itself is rotating about the y axis in frame S with angular speed 2 . Assume uS (0) = z. Compute the
inertial forces experienced by an observer in S?