College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Department of Physical Sciences

PH 1101 MECHANICS

Tutorial 4

Questions

4.1 Explain why you become physically tired when you push against a wall, fail to move it,
and therefore do no work on the wall.

4.2 When a person runs in a truck event at constant velocity, is any work done?

4.3 In picking up a book from the floor and putting it on a table, you do work. However, the
kinetic energy of the book does not change. Is there a violation of the work-energy
theorem here? Explain your answer.

4.4 Does the power needed to raise a box onto a platform depend on how fast it is raised?

4.5 What happens to the potential energy that an elevator loses in coming down from the top
of a building to a stop at the ground floor?

4.6 A swinging pendulum eventually comes to rest. Is this a violation of the law of
conservation of mechanical energy?

4.7 Our body muscles exert forces when we lift, push, run, jump, and so forth. Are these
forces conservative?
4.8 If three conservative forces and one nonconservative force act on a system, how many
potential energy terms appear in the equation that describes this system?

Problems

4.9 A block is placed on a plane inclined at 350 relative to the horizontal. If the block slides
down the plane with acceleration of magnitude g/3, determine the coefficient of kinetic
friction between the block and plane.

4.10 A 40kg box initially at rest is pushed 5.0 m along a rough horizontal floor with a constant
applied horizontal force 130N. If the coefficient of friction between the box and the floor
is 0.30, find (a) the work done by applied force, (b) the energy lost due to friction, (c) the
change in kinetic energy of the box, and (d) the final speed of the box.

4.11 A crate of mass 10.0 kg is pulled up a rough inclined with initial speed of 1.5 m/s. The
pulling force is 100N parallel to the inclined which makes an angle of 200 with
horizontal. The coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.400, and the crate is pulled 5.0 m. (a)
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 How much work is done by gravity? (b) How much energy is lost due to friction? (c)
How much work is done by the 100N force? (d) What is the change in kinetic energy of
the crate? (e) What is the speed of the crate after being pulled 5.00 m?

4.12 An object of mass m accelerates uniformly from rest to a speed vf in time tf. (a) Show that
2
1 vf 2
the work done on the object as function of time t, in terms of vf and tf, is w  m 2 t .
2 tf
(b) As a function of time t, what is the instantaneous power delivered to the object?

4.13 The force acting on a particle varies as shown in Figure P7.15. Find the work done by the
force as the particle moves (a) from x = 0 to x= 8.00 m, (b) from x= 8.00 m to x= 10.0 m,
and (c) from x= 0 to x= 10.0 m.

4.14 A mass start from rest and slides a distance d down a frictionless inclined of angle.
While sliding, it contacts an unstressed spring of negligible mass as shown in Fig. 1. The
mass slides an additional distance x as it is brought momentarily to rest by compression
of the spring (of the force constant k). Find the initial separation d between the mass and
the spring.

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 Figure 1

4.15 A bead slides without friction on a loop-the loop track. If the bead is released from a
height h = 3.5R, what is its speed at point A? How large is the normal force on it if its
mass is 5.00g

Figure 2

4.16 The coefficient of friction between the 3.0kg mass and surface in Fig.3 is 0.4. The system
starts from rest. What is the speed of the 5.0kg mass it has fallen 1.5m?

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 Figure 3

4.17 The potential energy corresponding to a certain two-dimensional force is given by

4.18 A 3.0 kg block start from rest at the top of a 300 inclined and slides 2.0 m down the
inclined in 1.5 s. Find: (a) the magnitude of the acceleration of the block, (b) the
coefficient of kinetic friction between the block and the plane, (c) the frictional force
acting on the block and (d) the speed of the block after it has slide 2.0m.

4.19 A 10.0 kg block is released from point A in Fig. 6.16. The track is friction- less except for
the portion BC, of length 6.00m. The block travels down the track, hits a spring of force
constant k = 2250N/m, and compresses it 0.300m from its equilibrium position before
coming to rest momentarily. Determine the coefficient of kinetic friction between surface
BC and block.

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4.20 A pendulum consists of a 2.0 kg stone on a 4.0m string of negligible mass. The stone has
a speed of 8.0 ms-1 when it passes its lowest point. (a) What is the speed when the string
is at 600 to the vertical? (b) What is the greatest angle with the vertical that the string will
reach during the stone’s motion? (c) If the potential energy of the pendulum–Earth
system is taken to be zero at the stone’s lowest point, what is the total mechanical energy
of the system?
4.21 A potential energy function for a two-dimensional force is of the form U  3x3 y  7 x .
Find the force that acts at the point (x, y).

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2023/2024.