Phys 134 Week 6
Motion in a Plane
Another useful way to think about a is in terms of one component parallel to the particle’s
path (tangent to the path) and to its velocity v, and one component perpendicular to the path
(normal to the path) and to v. The parallel component tells us about changes in the particle’s
speed, while the perpendicular component tells us about changes in the particle’s direction
of motion.
A physics book slides off a horizontal tabletop with a speed of 1.40 m/s. It strikes
the floor in 0.320 s. Ignore air resistance. Find (a) the height of the tabletop
above the floor; (b) the horizontal distance from the edge of the table to the point
where the book strikes the floor; (c) the horizontal and vertical components of
the book’s velocity, and the magnitude and direction of its velocity, just before
the book reaches the floor.
During a storm, a car traveling on a level horizontal road comes upon a bridge
that has washed out. The driver must get to the other side, so he decides to try
leaping the river with his car. The side of the road the car is on is 21.5 m above
the river, while the opposite side is only 2.00 m above the river. The river itself is
a raging torrent 57.0 m wide. (a) How fast should the car be traveling at the time
it leaves the road in order just to clear the river and land safely on the opposite
side? (b) What is the speed of the car just before it lands on the other side?
A major leaguer hits a baseball so that it leaves the bat at a speed of 33.0 m/s
and at an angle of 38.5° above the horizontal. Ignore air resistance. (a) At what
two times is the baseball at a height of 10.7 m above the point at which it left
the bat? (b) Calculate the horizontal and vertical components of the baseball’s
velocity at each of the two times calculated in part (a). (c) What are the
magnitude and direction of the baseball’s velocity when it returns to the
level at which it left the bat?
At a funfair stall, you can win a plush giraffe toy if you toss a coin into a small
dish. The dish is on a shelf above the point where the coin leaves your hand and
is a horizontal distance of 2.1 m from this point. If you toss the coin with a
velocity of 6.4 m/s at an angle of 60° above the horizontal, the coin will land in
the dish. Ignore air resistance. (a) What is the height of the shelf above the point
where the coin leaves your hand? (b) What is the vertical component of the
velocity of the coin just before it lands in the dish?
A man stands on the roof of a 15.0-m-tall building and throws a rock with a speed
of 30.0 m/s at an angle of 33.0° above the horizontal. Ignore air resistance.
Calculate (a) the maximum height above the roof that the rock reaches; (b) the
speed of the rock just before it strikes the ground; and (c) the horizontal range from
the base of the building to the point where the rock strikes the ground.
A test rocket starting from rest at point A is launched by accelerating it along a
200.0-m incline at 1.48 m/s2. The incline rises at 35.0° above the horizontal, and at
the instant the rocket leaves it, the engines turn off and the rocket is subject to
gravity only (ignore air resistance). Find (a) the maximum height above the ground
that the rocket reaches, and (b) the rocket’s greatest horizontal range beyond point
A.
In fighting forest fires, airplanes work in support of ground crews by dropping
water on the fires. For practice, a pilot drops a canister of red dye, hoping to hit a
target on the ground below. If the plane is flying in a horizontal path 90.0 m
above the ground and has a speed of 62.0 m/s at what horizontal distance from
the target should the pilot release the canister? Ignore air resistance.
A movie stuntwoman drops from a helicopter that is 30.0 m above the ground
and moving with a constant velocity whose components are 10.0 m/s upward
and 15.0 m/s horizontal and toward the south. Ignore air resistance. Where on
the ground (relative to the position of the helicopter when she drops) should the
stuntwoman have placed foam mats to break her fall?
A cricket ball thrown at an angle of 60.0° above the horizontal
strikes a building 18.0 m away at a point 8.00 m above the point from which
it is thrown. Ignore air resistance. (a) Find the magnitude of the ball’s initial
velocity (the velocity with which the ball is thrown). (b) Find the magnitude
and direction of the velocity of the ball just before it strikes the building.
A grasshopper leaps into the air from the edge of a vertical cliff, as shown in the
figure. Find (a) the initial speed of the grasshopper
and (b) the height of the cliff.
A snowball rolls off a barn roof that slopes downward
at an angle of 40°. The edge of the roof is 14.0 m above the ground, and the
snowball has a speed of 7.00 m/s as it rolls off the roof. Ignore air resistance. (a)
How far from the edge of the barn does the snowball strike the ground if it
doesn’t strike anything else while falling? (b) A man 1.90 m tall is standing 4.00
m from the edge of the barn. Will the snowball hit him?
A physics professor did daredevil stunts in his spare time. His last stunt was an
attempt to jump across a river on a motorcycle. The takeoff ramp was inclined at
53.0°, the river was 40.0 m wide, and the far bank was 15.0 m lower than the top of
the ramp. The river itself was 100 m below the ramp. Ignore air resistance. (a) What
should his speed have been at the top of the ramp to have just made it to the edge of
the far bank? (b) If his speed was only half the value found in part (a), where did he
land?
