SOLUTIONS TO HANDED-IN PROBLEMS OF HOMEWORK 1 (Note: each student solved problem 17.

52 online with their individual parameter values. This solution uses the parameters from the textbook.) (HW1-A) (0.25 points) Writeup of problem 17.52 from textbook

CALCULATION OF WEIGHT RISE VELOCITY FROM LENGTHS AND ANGULAR VELOCITIES OF ARM SEGMENTS

Illustrated mechanism represents a persons arm: shoulder is at A, elbow is at B, hand is at C. The person is pulling a rope which passes over a pulley to lift weight W. (1) First we determine the velocity of point B (the elbow). Since AB is a rigid link rotating around fixed point A with angular velocity AB, VB is given by VB = (-Yrel)ABi + (Xrel) ABj where Xrel and Yrel are the x and y coordinates of B with respect to A. In other words, VB = (-0mm)(1 rad/s)i + (300mm)(1 rad/s)j (2) Next we find VC by adding to VB the velocity of C relative to B, which is a rotational expression involving BC = 2 rad/s, Xrel = (400mm)cos(60) = 200mm, and Yrel = (400mm)sin(60) = 346.4mm. VC = 300 mm/s j + (-346.4mm)(2 rad/s)i + (200mm)(2 rad/s)j. = -692.8i + 700j mm/s

(3) We need the unit vector along the rope, which can be derived from the orientation of the rope (150 degrees from the x axis): erope = cos(150)i + sin(150)j = -.8660i + 0.5j (4) The dot product VC erope = (-.8660)(-692.8) + (0.5)(700) = 950.0 mm/s That is the velocity with which C moves away from the pulley. As long as the rope doesnt stretch, it is also the upwards speed of the weight. (HW1-B) (0.25 points) Excel calculation of 17.52 result, to give a plot of cable velocity for 1 second Here is one way to lay out the calculation. I used about 200 points, and I made the graph with a smooth curve rather than markers. Speed at 0 is 0.95014, smaller timesteps should make it even closer to 0.9500 (but such accuracy is rarely needed).

It is interesting to see that the speed rises then falls. What could be happening?? See below. You were asked to explain why the results lack validity after about 1 second. The short answer is: because at the given rotation rates of 1 rad/s and 2 rad/s, the arm segments move to the end of their range of motion! For insight, I plotted the path of the hand (x, y coordinates) at a fairly large time intervals (note that I stretched the graph to make the axes equal scale Excel does not do this automatically). You can see that no person could actually move their hand that way!

From this plot you can see that the path of the hand changes direction, so at some point it is moving more perpendicular to the cable (thus reducing the upward velocity of the weight), and later it moves toward the pulley (leading to a negative velocity).