Physics 118 – Exam 1, FA 2024 Name (Print):
Friday Sept. 13, 2024, 9:05-9:55am
PID:
Honor Pledge: On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this examination.
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• Exams can be stressful – please remember this is only a portion of your final course grade. Take a moment
to remind yourself of something you enjoy, relax, and do your best.
• There are five (5) questions on this exam for 100 points.
• If you are confused about the wording of a question, raise your hand and a professor will clarify.
• This is a closed book exam. Only writing utensils and a non-internet calculator are allowed. You are not
permitted to consult with any other people during the exam. All equations and constants are provided;
please do not return the equation sheet.
• You have 50 minutes to complete the exam.
• Please write neatly and legibly and circle (or clearly indicate) your final answers.
• Out of respect for other students, please remain seated for the last 10
minutes of the exam until released by an instructor (after all exams
have been collected).
• All work must be contained within the marked page borders.
• Show your work in enough detail so that the grader can follow your
reasoning and your method of solution. Clearly identify your
answers, include units where needed, and round final answers to an
appropriate number of significant figures. Written answers that do
not show proof of reasoning will receive a zero unless otherwise
indicated.
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1) [20 pts: 5 points each] Answer the following questions with a brief phrase, calculation, or sentence. Circle
the correct answer. Cont’d on reverse page.
a) A river flows steadily from the South to the North. A kayaker wants to reach a point directly to the
West of their starting position. In which compass direction should the kayaker paddle?
(a) North of West (b) West (c) North (d) South of West
b) You are standing inside an elevator. When a baseball is dropped from your hand you notice that it is
falling at an acceleration that is 5.0 m/s2 (relative to the elevator). Which of the following statements is
correct? Explain briefly your answer.
(1) The elevator is moving downward at a constant speed.
(2) The elevator is moving upward with a constant speed.
(3) The ball is not a free-falling body.
(4) The elevator frame is not a good inertial reference frame.
c) An object of mass 2.0 kg is subjected to two forces (in units of N):
𝐹𝐹⃗1 = 1.0 𝚤𝚤⃗ + 2.0 𝚥𝚥⃗ , 𝐹𝐹⃗2 = 3.0 𝚤𝚤⃗ + 1.0 𝚥𝚥⃗
What is the magnitude of the acceleration of the object?
(a) 1.5 m/s2 (b) 2.0 m/s2 (c) 2.5 m/s2 (d) 3.0 m/s2 (e) 3.5 m/s2
d) After spending Labor Day evening having a good time you and some friends were stumbling around in
downtown Raleigh trying to locate your car. First you walked East for 3 blocks in 3 min, then South for
4 blocks in 4 min, then West for 6 blocks in 3 min, and finally North for 4 blocks in 2 min. What is the
average velocity [blocks/min] of your trip for the whole exploration?
2) [20 pts: 5, 7, 8 points] A rotating platform of radius R is uniformly accelerated from the angular speed of
𝜔𝜔0 to 2 𝜔𝜔0 in a time interval T.
a) What is the magnitude of centripetal acceleration at time T?
b) If at the time T, the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration is found to be the same as the
magnitude of the tangential acceleration, find T in terms 𝜔𝜔0 .
c) Find the angle (in radians) through which the wheel rotates during that time interval T.
3) [23 pts: 5, 8, 10 pts] A women’s volleyball court is 18.0 m end-to-end, with a net in the middle that is 2.24
m high. The Carolina star player Mabrey Shaffmaster makes a jump serve against Duke from the endline.
The serve is at a height of 2.6 m with a spike speed of 19.0 m/s and an angle of 5.0 degree above the
horizonal. Neglect air resistance.
a) Draw a schematic diagram of the problem set-up including: the court length, net height, the spike
point of volleyball, and its initial velocity vector. Label all quantities whose values you know.
b) Would the ball pass over the top of the volleyball net?
c) Would the ball land inside the court on the Blue Devil’s side?
4) [17 pts: 5, 5, 7] The position of a particle is given by 𝑟𝑟⃗(𝑡𝑡) = cos(𝜋𝜋 𝑡𝑡) 𝚤𝚤⃗ − 4𝑡𝑡 2 𝚥𝚥�⃗ + 4𝑡𝑡 𝑘𝑘�⃗ in units of meters,
where time t is in seconds.
a) What is the speed of the particle as a function of time t ?
b) What is the particle’s acceleration at time t = 1.0 s?
c) What is the magnitude of the average velocity for the particle between t = 0 s and t = 1 s?
5) [20 pts: 5, 5, 10] James Bond is chasing the Bad Guy on top of a moving train. The train is moving on its
tracks at a constant speed of 30 m/s. Starting from the back at rest relative to the train, Bond runs at a
constant acceleration of 2 m/s2 until he reaches a maximum running speed of 10.0 m/s (with respect to
the train). The Bad Guy is 30 m ahead of him and is running at 5 m/s (with respect to the train). The train is
120 m long from the back to the front. Take the direction from the back to the front as positive, which is
also the direction in which the train is moving.
a) How long does it take Bond to reach his maximum speed?
b) When Bond reaches his maximum speed, he throws a knife at a speed of 60 m/s (relative to Bond)
toward the Bad Guy. What is the speed of the knife relative to the ground in m/s?
c) If the knife misses the Bad Guy, would Bond be able to catch the Bad Guy before the Bad Guy reaches
the front of the train and jumps off?
