MIDTERM EXAM, PHYSICS 5306, Fall, 2002 Dr. Charles W.

Myles Take Home Exam: Distributed, Wednesday, October 23 DUE, IN MY OFFICE OR MAILBOX, 5PM, MON., OCT. 28. NO EXCEPTIONS! TAKE HOME EXAM RULE: You are allowed to use almost any resources (books from the library, etc.) to solve these problems. THE EXCEPTION is that you MAY NOT COLLABORATE WITH ANY OTHER PERSON in solving them! If you have questions or difficulties with these problems, you may consult with me, but not with fellow students (whether or not they are in this class!) or with other faculty. You are bound by the TTU Code of Student Conduct not to violate this rule! Anyone caught violating this rule will, at a minimum, receive an F on this exam! INSTRUCTIONS: Please read all of these before doing anything else!!! Failure to follow these may lower your grade!! 1. PLEASE write on one side of the paper only!! This may waste paper, but it makes my grading easier! 2. PLEASE do not write on the exam sheets, there will not be room! Use other paper!! 3. PLEASE show all of your work, writing down at least the essential steps in the solution of a problem.
Partial credit will be liberal, provided that the essential work is shown. Organized work, in a logical, easy to follow order will receive more credit than disorganized work. 4. PLEASE put the problems in order and the pages in order within a problem before turning in this exam! 5. PLEASE clearly mark your final answers and write neatly. If I cannot read or find your answer, you can't expect me to give it the credit it deserves and you are apt to lose credit. 6. NOTE!!! the setup (THE PHYSICS) of a problem will count more heavily in the grading than the detailed mathematics of working it out.

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE DIRECTIONS!!!! THANK YOU!!! NOTE!!!! WORK ANY 5 OUT OF THE 6 PROBLEMS! Each problem is equally weighted and worth 20 points for a total of 100 points on this exam. Please sign this statement and turn it in with your exam: I have neither given nor received help on this exam _______________________________
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1. See the figure. Two masses, m1 and m2 are connected by a massless, inextensible cord of length that passes through a hole in a horizontal table. Mass m1 moves without friction on the table top, in a curved path as shown, while mass m2 oscillates like the bob of a simple pendulum. Gravity is acting downward. Use the generalized coordinates suggested in the figure to solve this problem. a. Set up the Lagrangian for this system. How many degrees of freedom are there? b. What is the constraint? Write the equation of constraint. What is the physical significance of the constraint force? c. Use Lagranges equations along with the method of Lagrange multipliers to derive the equations of motion. d. What are the constants of the motion? e. Using the results of part c. along with the equation of constraint, go as far as you can towards finding the force of constraint and solving the equations of motion. f. If there is an additional constraint that mass m1 moves in a circle of radius r = a, show that the equations of motion decouple into the usual equations for a particle (m1) moving in a circle and for a simple pendulum (m2).

NOTE!!!! WORK ANY 5 OUT OF THE 6 PROBLEMS! 2. See the figure. A mass m is attached to one end of an ideal, massless spring of spring constant k and relaxed length . The other end of the spring is attached to the ceiling, so that the system hangs vertically. The spring is simultaneously pulled to the side, as shown, and stretched past its relaxed length . The system is then released. The resulting motion is thus a superposition of simple pendulum and simple harmonic oscillator motions. a. Set up the Lagrangian for this system. How many degrees of freedom are there? b. Use Lagranges equations to find the equations of motion for this system. c. What are the constants of the motion? d. Under what conditions will this system reduce to a simple pendulum? Under what conditions will it reduce to a simple harmonic oscillator? 3. Note: Each of the following problems deals with a particle of mass m moving in a central force field. Parts c and d are independent of each other and also independent of parts a and b! a. The particle orbit is given by r( =AeB where A and B are positive constants. This is ) , a logarithmic spiral. Find the force F(r) and the corresponding potential energy V(r). For angular momentum calculate the effective potential V(r). Make a qualitative plot of V(r) vs. r for different . Qualitatively discuss (using WORDS in complete, grammatically correct English sentences!) the orbit of the particle for different energies E. In other words, go through a discussion for this case which is similar to what Goldstein does (Sect. 3.3) in the case of the inverse r-squared potential. b. Calculate r(t) and for the particle orbit in part a. The needed integrals are (t) tabulated! Dont forget the integration constants! c. The particle moves in a central force field given by F(r) = - [k/(rn)], where n is a positive integer and k > 0. Prove that if the particles orbit is circular (say, of radius a) and if the orbit passes through the force center (r = 0), this requires that n = 5. d. The particle moves in a central force field given by F(r) = Kr3 where K > 0. For what energy E and angular momentum will the orbit be a circle of radius a about the origin? What is the period of this circular motion? If the particle is slightly disturbed from this circular motion, what will be the period of the radial oscillations about r = a? 4. Note: The following problems concern a beam of particles of mass m scattering from a repulsive central force. Assume that the particles start at r with velocity v0 and angular momentum . In the following, s is the impact parameter. Parts a and b are independent of parts c and d! The needed integrals are tabulated! Dont forget the constants of integration! a. The central force is F(r) = (C/r3) where C > 0. Calculate the scattering angle (s). b. For case in part a, calculate and plot the differential scattering cross section ). ( c. The central potential is V(r) = 0, r > a; V(r) = -V0, r a, with a & V0 constants. This is a spherical potential well. Calculate the scattering angle (s). d. For case in part c, calculate and plot the differential scattering cross section ). ( Calculate the total cross section . T NOTE!!!! WORK ANY 5 OUT OF THE 6 PROBLEMS! 5. The following problems deal with rigid body kinematics, as in Ch. 4 of Goldstein. Caution!! The equation numbers referred to are from the 3rd Edition of Goldstein. The equation

numbering (and the notation!) might be different in earlier editions! a. In an axis set where the z-axis is the axis of rotation for a finite rotation, the rotation matrix is given by Eq. (4.43) with the Euler angle replaced by the finite rotation angle . Derive the rotation formula, Eq (4.62), by transforming to an arbitrary coordinate system, and expressing the orthogonal matrix of transformation in terms of the direction cosines of the axis of the finite rotation. b. In class, we derived expressions, Eq. (4.87), for Cartesian components of the angular velocity i in terms of Euler angles and their time derivatives. There, the , , components are taken with respect to body axes (i = x, y, z). Derive similar expressions for Cartesian components with respect to space axes (i = x, y, z). i c. By using definitions discussed in Ch. 4 and in class, find expressions for the complex Cayley-Klein parameters , , , in terms of Euler angles (Hint: , , . repeated use of the relation eix = cosx + i sinx and its inverse relations plus some trig identities might simplify the math!). d. Use the results of part c, along with expressions, Eq. (4.87), for Cartesian components of the angular velocity in the body axis system in terms of the Euler angles i and their time derivatives, to find expressions for these components in terms of CayleyKlein parameters and their time derivatives. This will be a mess! Carry it out as far as you can!!! 6. See the figure. A projectile in the Northern hemisphere, at latitude is launched with an initial velocity v towards the , South at an angle with respect to the horizontal. Neglect centrifugal force effects and assume that the gravitational acceleration g is the same throughout the projectile path. When computing numbers, use v = 500 m/s, 30, and 60. = = (Hint: Using a coordinate system where North is the positive y-axis, East is the positive xaxis, and the [local] vertical is the positive z-axis will simplify the analysis.) a. Ignoring the effects of the Coriolis force, solve the freshman physics problem of finding the expected range R of the projectile. Put in numbers! b. Now, include the effects of the Coriolis force. Compute (approximately, as in the examples in class) the Coriolis deflection of the projectile and calculate the point of impact. That is, how far to the South and how far to the West of the launch position will the projectile hit the Earth? Put in numbers! (Hint: The Coriolis deflection due to both the vertical component of the velocity and the horizontal [Southward] component of velocity will contribute. The vertical component of velocity will give a different sign to the force on the way up and the way down. However, the total deflection caused by this will be non-zero! The [local] vertical and the horizontal components of the Earths angular velocity will both contribute to the deflection.)