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Problem set: Application of Newton’s Laws

Dr. Hugh Mc Namara
January
. A man drives a car at constant acceleration m s−NJ along a straight horizontal
road. He is towing a trailer of mass kg which is a ached to the car by a
spring of stiffness − lj
N m . e coefficient of rolling friction between the
wheels of the trailer and the road is . . Explain why the extension of the
spring is constant. What will the extension be?
. A kg bungee jumper is on a bridge m above the surface of a river. e
unstretched length of the bungee cord is m. You may assume that the
string acts as an elastic string with stiffness N m−lj . e jumper is . m
tall, and the cord is a ached to her ankle. She allows herself to fall from the
bridge. Will she hit the water?
. What is the minimum height of the bridge in the previous question that en-
sures the jumper does not hit the water? If the height is greater than this,
what force does the cord exert on her at the lowest point of her dive? How
high will she travel back upwards before the cord goes slack?
. e deck of a suspension bridge is suspended by elastic steel cables a ached
along the sides. ese can be modelled as elastic strings (not springs), which
differs from springs in that a string does not support compression in the way
that a spring does. Consider the following simple problem. A single cable is
supported at its upper end by a rigid immovable support. At the other end
a mass is a ached to the cable. e mass is pulled down and released. How
would you track the ensuing motion? You can assume that the cable goes
slack when the tension in it reaches zero. For an illustration of the (much
more complicated) dynamics of bridges, look up the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
disaster (there is good video on YouTube). ese problems are complicated
and highly nonlinear, and give rise to very interesting behaviour.

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. A car with weight . × nj N is initially moving at a speed of km hr−lj when
the brakes are applied, and the car is brought to a stop in m. Assume that
the stopping force is constant. Find
(a) the magnitude of the force and
(b) the time required to bring the car to a halt.
. e car from the previous question has a different initial speed of km hr−lj .
e same constant force is applied to bring the car to a halt. What is the
stopping distance in this case?
. Two blocks with weights of . kg and . kg are in contact on a horizontal
frictionless table. A horizontal force of . N is applied to the larger block
on the face opposite the smaller block. Find the force of contact between
the two blocks. If the force was applied to the lighter block in the direction
of the heavier, show that the force of contact is different to the earlier case.
Explain this difference.

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