MECH1 Problem Sheet 3 Due Friday March 6

Mandatory problems: 1,3,4,5 and one out of 6–8.

Dynamics continued, momentum conservation, mass centre

Do all problems
1. (a) A driver going with velocity v slams his breaks. Find the distance the car travels before it stops if the
friction coefficient is µ.
Answer: The only horizonatal force is friction, equal to µmg. This is motion with constant acceleration
v
a = µg. It takes t = µg seconds to stop, so the distance id

at2 v2
d= =
2 2µg

(b) A driver is going along a curve with constant speed v. Find the minimum radius of the curve so that
the car does not skid if the friction coefficient is µ.
Answer: The car is going with constant speed around the circle, so the acceleration is v 2 /r and directed
towards the centre. The only force that has component in the direction towards the centre is static
friction Fsf ≤ µmg. Thus
v2
mv 2 /r ≤ µmg, r ≥ .
µg
(c) A driver suddenly sees a long wall perpendicular to the direction of travel. He can either break or try
to avoid collision by turning at the same speed. Use the results of (a) and (b) to argue that he should
break (all that counts as failure/success is whether the collision does or does not take place).
Answer: If the driver decided to turn, he would be able to avoid collision if he were at the distance
v2
r > µg from the wall. Breaking is better – he will stop before hitting the wall if originally he was at
v2
the distance d > 2µg .
(d) If the wall has a finite length 2l, and the driver is originally facing its midpoint, find the minimum l
when the driver is better off turning away.
2
v
Answer: Draw a circle of radius r = µg centered at the origin O. Let A be the circle’s intersection with
the positive x-axis. Draw a vertical segment AB up from A, of length d = r/2. From B draw a horizontal
segment, until it intersects the circle at some C. Turning will be better is l < |BC|. In the triangle OAC
the sides OA and OC have length r and the height dropped from C onto the side OA is r/2. If D is the
projection of B onto the side OA,
p √ √
|OD| = r2 − d2 = r 3/2, |AD| = |BC| = r(1 − 3/2).

So turning away is better when

v2 √
l< (1 − 3/2).
µg
2. A particle of mass m1 collides with another particle of mass m2 , whereupon they form a single particle of
mass m. Suppose, the same scenario is viewed in a “rest frame” K and another inertial frame K 0 which is
moving with constant velocity with respect to K. Use the conservation of momentum and Galileo’s relativity
principle to show that m = m1 + m2 .
Answer: Let v 1 and v 2 be the velocities of the particles before the collision and v be the velocity of the
composite particle after the collision, in K.
By the law of conservation of momentum, as there are no external forces involved,

m1 v 1 + m2 v 2 = mv. (1)

Let now K 0 move with the velocity V with respect to K.

1
 According to Galileo transforms, the velocities of the particles in the inertial frame K 0 are

v 01 = v 1 − V , v 02 = v 2 − V , v0 = v − V .

The law of conservation of momentum in K 0 becomes

m1 (v 1 − V ) + m2 (v 2 − V ) = m(v − V ).

Comparing with (1) yields

(m1 + m2 )V = mV ,
and as this is the case for any V , one must have m = m1 + m2 .
3. A man of mass m slowly walks from one end of the boat of mass M to the other. Find the boat’s displacement
by the time the man reaches the other end of the boat. Do not assume that the boat’s mass is distributed
uniformly along its length. HINT: use conservation of momentum.
Answer: This is a closed system (as the man walks slowly, the drag force impressed by water can be made as
small as desired) whose total momentum in the stationary frame, associated with water is zero. So, whenever
the man has velocity v, the boat must have the velocity −mv/M . So, the boat always moves M/m times
slower than the man, and will therefore move by the distance ms/M , where s is the distance traveled by the
man, with respect to water. As
m
s + ms/M = l, ms/M = l.
M +m

4. A bee sits on the bottom of a small sealed test tube of length l. The test tube is hung vertically over a table
by a thread, so that its bottom is at height l above the table. The thread is cut, and as the test tube falls
(there is no air resistance), the bee flies up to the tube’s sealed top. Assuming that the mass of the bee
equals the mass of the test tube, find the time it takes for the lower end of the tube to hit the table.
Answer: Let the mass centre of the tube be at the height x from its bottom. Then originally the mass centre
of the system was at the height x/2 from the bottom. After the fall, as the bee is now on the ceiling, it is
at the height x+l
2 from the bottom. So, the mass centre has fallen by l/2. Falling by h = l/2 in gravity field
takes time p p
t = 2h/g = l/g.
√
If the bee did not move, the mass centre would fall by l = 2h, which would take 2 times longer.
5. Three particles, of masses 1, 2, 3 start at the origin and are moving with velocities 3, 2, 1, along the
x, y, and z-axes respectively. Find the trajectory, velocity, and momentum of the mass centre and par-
ticles’ velocities in the mass centre frame. Verify that the total momentum in the mass centre frame is
zero.
Answer: Let R, V , P be the position, velocity, momentum of the mass centre, and r 0i , v 0i , p0i , respectively,
describe ith particle in the mass centre frame.
1 1
R(t) = (3ti + 4tj + 3tk), V = (3i + 4j + 3k), P = 3i + 4j + 3k.
6 6
By Galileo’s principle
1 1 1
v 01 = 3i − (3i + 4j + 3k), v 02 = 2j − (3i + 4j + 3k), v 03 = k − (3i + 4j + 3k).
6 6 6
The total momentum in the mass centre frame is
1
1v 01 + 2v 02 + 3v 03 = 3i + 4j + 3k − 6 · (3i + 4j + 3k) = 0.
6

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 6. Show that the mass centre of three unit mass particles A, B, C not lying on the same line is located at the
intersection of the medians in the triangle ABC. This point is called the triangle’s centroid.
Answer: For the mass centre:
1
R=
[mr A + mr B + mr C ]
3m
Choosing the origin at the vertex A means r A = 0, so
2 1
R= [ (r B + r C )],
3 2
that is two thirds along the median drawn from the vertex A onto the edge BC, i.e. at the centroid, where
the medians intersect, being divided at the ratio 2:1.
7. Show that given a triangle ABC of uniformly distributed mass, its mass centre is located at the centroid.
Answer: Take A as the origin, draw the median AE onto the side BC. If t is the parameter along the median,
with t = 0 corresponding to A and t = 1 corresponding to E, split the triangle into thin strips parallel to
BC, intersecting AE at tAE ~ and having width dt. Each strip has its mass centre at the point t and has
mass (t|BC|)dt. Then the mass centre of the triangle is at
Z 1
1 ~
(t|BC|dt) tAE,
S 0

where S is the area of the triangle ABC. On the other hand,

Z 1
S= t|BC|dt.
0

Comparing the two expressions results in the fact that the mass centre of the triangle is positioned two thirds
down the median AE, namely at the centroid of ABC.
8. Given three rods of the same material and uniformly distributed mass, forming the triangle ABC, the mass
centre lies at the point, where the bisectors of the triangle DEF intersect, where D is the midpoint of the
edge AB, E is the midpoint of BC, and F is the midpoint of CA. This is the centre of the circle, inscribed
into the triangle DEF .
Answer: First off, we can assume that the linear density along each edge equals 1 and that the mass of each
edge, equal to its length li (i = 1, 2, 3 for the edges AB, BC, and AC, respectively) is concentrated at the
points D, E, F .
This comes from the general property of additivity of mass centre which follows from its definition. Namely,
the mass centre of a system of N “light” particles partitioned into n < N groups is the mass centre of a
system of n “heavy” particles, whose mass equals the net mass of the particles in the corresponding group,
positioned at the group’s mass centre.1 So we can assume, we are dealing with the triangle DEF , with point
masses l1 , l2 , l3 sitting at D, E, F , respectively.
1 To see this for this particular example, split the ith edge into N l small ”point” bits, each of mass dm = 1
i N
. Then, if the perimeter,
aka total mass is p, we have  
Nl N l2 N l3
1 X1 X X
R= dmr j1 + dmr j2 + dmr j3  ,
p j j j
1 2 3

where e.g. r j1 is the radius-vector of the bit of mass dm along the first edge. Again, let A be the origin, let the x-axis point along the
AB edge, let e1 be the unit vector along the x-axis. Then as N → ∞,
N
X l1 Z l1 l12 1 ~
dmr j1 = xdx e1 = e1 = l1 AB.
j1 0 2 2

Similarly for the other three sides. Hence,

· ¸ · ¸
1 1 ~ 1 ~ 1 ~ ~ 1 ~ + l3 1 AF
~ + l2 1 AE ~ .
R= l1 AB + l3 AC + l2 (AB + AC) = l1 AD
p 2 2 2 p 2 2

3
Now choose D as the origin, then the mass centre is at
1 ~ + l3 DF
~ ].
[l2 DE
p

But DE~ has length, which is half of the length of AC, which is l3 . Similarly, DF
~ has length, which is half of
~ ~
the length of BC, which is l2 . Thus, the lengths of the vectors l2 DE and l3 DF are both equal to l2 l3 , and
\.
therefore their sum lies on the bisector of the angle EDF
In the same vein, choosing E and F as origin, we conclude that the mass centre lies at the bisector of the
\ and DF
angles DEF \ E. So, it is at the intersection of the triangle’s DEF bisectors, and this is where the
inscribed circle’s centre lies.