ALPH 32 TUTORIAL 2 ALG 17

(MECHANICS)
[Lely2014] Page 1


1. Can an object accelerate if its
a. Velocity = 0
b. Velocity is uniform?


2. A racing car is going round a corner at constant speed. Explain whether the car is
accelerating.


3. A particle moves in a straight line with uniform acceleration. At time = 0, its speed is
zero and its displacement from the origin is zero. Sketch labeled graphs to show how
a. The speed v of the particle
b. Its displacement s from the origin
varies with time. Explain the relationship between the two graphs.

4. A car is travelling at 16 ms
-1
is at a distance of 36 m from a stationary lorry when the
brakes of the car are applied. The car crashes into the lorry 4.0 s later.
a. What is the speed of the car just before colliding into the lorry?
b. What is the cars deceleration?

5. Sketch the velocity-time graph for each of the following bodies. Neglect air resistance.
a. A brick falling from the top of a building which is under construction.
b. A ball which is thrown vertically upwards and is caught by the hand 10 s later.
c. A ball which drops from rest from a height, and then bounces back to the same
height.
[Take the downward direction as positive in (a), and the upward direction as positive
in (b) and (c).]

6. A bullet is fired vertically into the air from the top of a building and reaches a height of
1600 m. It then falls to the ground below. The total time of flight is 38.0 s.
a. What is the speed at which the bullet leaves the gun?
b. From what height above the ground is the bullet fired?
c. What is the speed of the bullet when it hits the ground?
d. Sketch the velocity-time graph for the motion of the bullet.

7. A rocket is launched vertically upwards with a uniform acceleration of 19.6 ms
-2
for 60 s.
After 60 s, the rocket stops burning fuel and continues to move as a free object under the
influence of gravity.
a. What is the maximum height reached by the rocket?
ALPH 32 TUTORIAL 2 ALG 17
(MECHANICS)
[Lely2014] Page 2

b. What is the total time of travel from the moment the rocket is launched until it
crashes to the ground?

8. A bullet is fired horizontally at 200 ms
-1
, at a target 40 m away. Neglecting air resistance:
a. How far below the point of aim will it hit the target? (how far does it drop?)
b. At what angle will it enter the target?


9. An airplane accelerates at 3.1 ms
-2
to reach its take off speed of 100 ms
-1
.
a. How long must the runway be?
b. How long does it take before the plane takes off?

10. A golf ball leaves the club at 46 ms
-1
, at an angle of 50 upwards from the horizontal,
across level ground. Neglect air resistance.
a. What is the vertical component of the velocity?
b. What is the horizontal component of the velocity?
c. How long does it take to reach the top of its flight?
d. How high does it go?
e. After how long does it hit the ground?
f. What is the horizontal distance travelled?

11. A car is travelling along the motorway at 35 ms
-1
. The driver does not notice a stationary
police car, which then gives chase. The police car accelerates at 2.5 ms
-2
until it overtakes
the speeding car.
a. How long does it take for the police car to draw level with the speeding car?
b. How far does the police car travel before this happens?

12. A particle moving along the x-axis has a velocity given by v = 4t - 2.5t
2
cm/s for t in
seconds. Find its acceleration at
a. t = 0.5 s
b. t = 3 s

13. A football is thrown toward a receiver with an initial speed of 20 ms-1 at an angle of 30
above the horizontal. At that instant, the receiver is 20 m from the quarterback. In what
direction and with what constant speed should the receiver run in order to catch the
football at the level at which it was thrown? [7.65m/s]

ALPH 32 TUTORIAL 2 ALG 17
(MECHANICS)
[Lely2014] Page 3

14. A rocket is launched at an angle of 53 to the horizontal with an initial speed of 100 ms
-1
.
It moves along its initial line of motion with an acceleration of 30 ms
-2
for 3s. At this
time, its engines fail and the rocket proceeds to move as a free body. Find
a. the maximum altitude reached by the rocket, [1522m]
b. its total time of flight, and [36s]
c. its horizontal range. [4035.2m]

15. An Algerian Olympic decathlon star, who happens to be a bright physics student, is
trapped on the roof of a burning building with a pencil, paper, and a pocket of calculator.
He has about 15 minutes to decide whether to jump to the next building by either running
at top speed horizontally off the edge or by using the long-jump technique. The next
building is horizontally 9 m away and vertically 3 m from below. His 100-m dash time is
10.3 s and his long-jump distance is 7.8 m. First decide which angle should he make with
the horizontal for his long-jumping (state your reason), and then perform calculations to
decide which method he can use to reach the other building safely. [long-jumping]

16. An enemy ship is on the east side of a mountain island as shown below. The enemy ship
can maneuver to within 2500 m of the 1800 m high mountain peak and can shoot
projectiles with an initial speed of 250 ms
-1
. If the western shoreline is horizontally 300 m
from the peak, what are the distances from the western shore at which a ship can be safe
from the bombardment of the enemy ship? [269.3-3466m
western shoreline]