PC1431 Physics IE: Tutorial 1

Question 1 The position of the particle is given by x(t) = At2 + B et , (1)

where A, B and are constants. At time t = 0, the particle is at x = 1.0 m and moving with velocity v = 4.0 m/s. Its velocity is observed to be 10 m/s at t = 0.2 s. What is the acceleration of the particle at t = 1.0 s? [Ans: 880 m/s2 ] Question 2 At t = 0, ship A is located 4.0 km north and 2.5 km east of ship B . Ship A has a constant velocity of 22 km/h toward the south, and ship B has a constant velocity of 40 km/h in the direction 37 north of east.

At approximately what time is the separation between the ships least? [ANS: t = 5 min] Question 3 A boy stands at the peak of a hill which slopes downwards uniformly at an angle as shown in the gure below. At what angle from the horizontal should he throw a rock so that it has the greatest range, R?
v

Question 4 A particle leaves the origin with initial velocity v0 = (11 + 14 ) ms1 . It undergoes a constant acceleration given by a = (1.2 + 0.26 ) ms2 (3) (2)

When the particle crosses the y -axis, what is the angle between the acceleration vector and the direction of motion? [Ans: 47 ] Question 5 B

A R A car moving at 18.1 ms1 enters a curve that describes a quarter turn of radius R = 120 m from A to B as shown in the gure above. The driver gently applies the brakes, slowing the car down at a constant rate of 0.65 ms2 . Just before emerging from the turn at B , what is the angle between the acceleration vector and the direction of motion? [Ans: 133 ] Question 6 (For discussion on forum, peer learning) A tennis player wants to slam a serve from one corner of the court at height h above the ground so that the ball lands just inside the opposite corner of the court. The court has length L and width W . What should the ratio v0v /v0h be, where v0v is the vertical component and v0h is the horizontal component of the initial velocity v0 ? The time, t = 0 is the time when the ball is hit by the racket and t = is the time when the ball touches the ground.

Question 7 (For discussion on forum, peer learning) The yellow caution light in a trac intersection should remain long enough to allow a car to stop before the intersection or to be able to pass through the intersection before the light turns red.

An intersection is 25 m wide. If the speed limit of this road is 50 km/h, and the car can reduce its speed at a rate of 5.0 m/s2 , what is the minimum time for the yellow caution light to be left on so that any driver who obeys the speed limit can safely cross or stop in time? [Ans: 3.2 s] (Hint: You may neglect the reaction time of the driver and the dimension of the car. Furthermore, assume that the car still travels within the speed limit when it is going through the intersection.)