Physicscatalyst Magazine 1
1
PC –MAGAZINE -01
http://physicscatalyst.com
2
Contents
• A Physics Scientist Profile and Information • Latest News and Invention in Physics • A detailed Explanation on Center of Mass • Motivational Stories • Crossword Puzzle • CBSE Sample Paper • Institute Information • Motivational Quotes • Challenging questions in Mechanics
http://physicscatalyst.com
3
A Physics Scientist Profile and Information
James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule was born on 24 December 1818 in Salford, Lancashire.He was the son of Benjamin Joule a wealthy brewer, and Alice Prescott Joule. He received his early education at home and later on he was sent with his elder brother Benjamin, to study with John Dalton at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. After Dalton was struck with an illness Joule inherited a lot of his work. A room his house was set back just for his laboratory investigations, and experiments
Joule was not just a man of work even though in the perspective of most he could be seen as one. A lot of what shows that he was not just working all the time was that in 1847 he was married to Amelia Grimes. Although he did spend most of his honeymoon in the Alps studding the nature of a waterfall. Joule observed that the water at the temperature at the peak of the fall was cooler than the water at the bottom. This led him to believe that the water was heated from the movement of the water down the ledge. This was significant to his hypothesis of heat conservation. Later he also had children, a son Benjamin Author and a Daughter Alice Amelia. In 1854 Joule was struck with a tragedy when his son and his wife passed away, so Joule stayed a widower for the rest of his time.
Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work . His first major research was concerned with determining the quantity of heat produced by an electric current and, in 1840, Joule discovered a simple law connecting the current and resistance with the heat generated.
In 1848 Joule published a paper on the kinetic theory of gases, in which he estimated the speed of gas molecules. From 1852 he worked with William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) on experiments on thermodynamics. Their best known result is the Joule–Kelvin effect – the effect in which an expanding gas, under certain conditions, is cooled by the expansion. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him.
Joule discovered the first law of thermodynamics, which is a form of the law of conservation of energy. He showed that work can be converted as heat with a ratio of one to the other, and work can be made into heat. His works on the conservation of heat is put into the first part of the first law of thermodynamics. This law says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but only transformed.
He Died on October 11, 1889 (aged 70) at Sale, Cheshire, England http://physicscatalyst.com
4
Latest News and Invention in Physics
A faster way of boarding planes
A Fermilab astrophysicist has used his analytical skills to come up with a more efficient way to board planes. Most people are familiar with the usual holdups when boarding: waiting for the person ahead to stow his or her luggage, and having to dislodge seated passengers to get to a center or window seat. Jason Steffen’s method minimizes the former and eliminates the latter. He proposes boarding passengers in all the window seats first, then center, then aisle, starting at the back of the plane and moving forward, and boarding by alternate rows, so passengers are spaced far enough apart to stow their luggage at the same time. In tests conducted by Steffen and Hollywood producer Jon Hotchkiss, Steffen’s method took half the time of the current block boarding method used by most airlines, in which passengers are assigned to groups or zones within the cabin. Now all he has to do is persuade the airlines to adopt it. Steffen has published his findings in the Journal of Air Transport Management
LEDs could multitask as data transmitters
Light bulbs could soon be used to broadcast wireless internet. Harald Haas of the UK’s Edinburgh University has been working on a revolutionary method of data transmission that makes use of light waves rather than wires or radio waves. Using LEDs, which are more efficient than standard light bulbs and can be switched on and off very quickly, he has found that he can vary the intensity of their output and pick up the signals with a simple receiver. With data rates of 100 megabits per second, Haas’s system relies on the fact that the human eye cannot detect the rapid flickering on and off of the LEDs— instead they appear to maintain a normal steady glow. Besides faster transmission capabilities, such a device would also have applications in the oil and gas industries, where radio waves can cause sparks, and for underwater robotic vehicles and submarines, where the electrically conductive salt water stifles radio waves
Curiosity landed on Mars on 6 August
For the first time since the Viking missions of the 1970s, the US has send a rover— Curiosity—to Mars for the primary purpose of finding the building blocks of life. The Viking landers returned a picture of a cold, dead Mars that could at no time have supported organic material. However, recent data from Mars-orbiting observatories and from the two geology-focused rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have provided significant evidence for the existence of liquid water at various points of Martian history. Curiosity, which has landed in a crater that may contain extensive mineral deposits, will be able to http://physicscatalyst.com
5 drill deeper than previous rovers and perform a wide range of analyses on gathered samples. Because it was three times heavier than earlier rovers, a new, automatic landing system had been developed to deploy the robot. The landing, which used the world’s largest supersonic parachute and a sky crane, was referred to as “seven minutes of terror” because of the lack of direct control by NASA scientists over the process. However, soon after touching down, the $2.6 billion rover was able to send two pictures, one showing one of its wheels on the ground and one showing its shadow. The successful landing elicited cheers from the NASA employees in the control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For the next two years, Curiosity will explore the Martian surface, collect information about the planet’s geologic history, and look for possible signs of life, past or present.
India set for Mars mission in 2013
The Indian government has approved a mission to Mars in what would be the country's first visit to the red planet. The news comes just four years after India launched its maiden mission to the Moon – Chandrayaan-1 – and days after NASA landed the Curiosity car-sized rover on Mars.
The £70m mission will be launched in November 2013 from India's spaceport at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the island of Sriharikota using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The mission, which will orbit Mars and study the planet's geology and climate, has already been allocated £26m in the country's science budget.
Details of the new mission remain scarce as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) remains tight-lipped about the probe. However, it is expected that more information will be released on 15 August, when India's prime minister delivers the country's Independence Day speech.
The Mars orbiter is expected to weigh 500 kg, with a scientific payload of around 25 kg, and be placed in a highly elliptical orbit around the planet. "Not knowing the payload specifics, it is hard to judge [the mission]," says Jeffrey Plescia, a Mars researcher at Johns Hopkins University in the US. "But the Chandrayaan mission had a diverse set of instruments that provided a great deal of unique data. If they do something similar [to the Mars mission], then it could be a substantial contribution to science."
http://physicscatalyst.com
6
CENTER OF MASS
• Consider a body consisting of large number of particles whose mass is equal to the total mass of all the particles. When such a body undergoes a translational motion the displacement is produced in each and every particle of the body with respect to their original position. • If this body is executing motion under the effect of some external forces acting on it then it has been found that there is a point in the system , where if whole mass of the system is supposed to be concentrated and the nature the motion executed by the system remains unaltered when force acting on the system is directly applied to this point. Such a point of the system is called centre of mass of the system. • Hence for any system Centre of mass is the point where whole mass of the system can be supposed to be concentrated and motion of the system can be defined in terms of the centre of mass. • Consider a stationary frame of reference where a body of mass M is situated. This body is made up of n number of particles. Let m i be the mass and ri be the position vector of i'th particle of the body. • Let C be any point in the body whose position vector with respect to origin O of the frame of reference is Rc and position vector of point C w.r.t. i'th particle is rci as shown below in the figure.
• From triangle OCP ri=Rc+rci (1) multiplying both sides of equation 1 bt m i we get miri=m iRc+m irci taking summation of above equation for n particles we get http://physicscatalyst.com
7
If for a body
then point C is known as the centre of mass of the body.
• Hence a point in a body w.r.t. which the sum of the product of mass of the particle and their position vector is equal to zero is equal to zero is known as centre of mass of the body.
Position of centre of mass (i) Two particle system
• Consider a system made up of two particles whose mass are m 1 and m 2 and their respective position vectors w.r.t. origin O be r1 and r2 and Rcm be the position vector of centre of mass of the system as shown below in the figure. So from equation
http://physicscatalyst.com
8
• If M=m 1+m 2=total mass of the system , then
(ii) Many particle system
• Consider a many particle system made up of number of particles as shown below in the figure. Let m 1 , m 2 , m 3 , ...... , m n be the masses of the particles of system and their respective position vectors w.r.t. origin are r1 , r2 , r3 , ...... , rn.
• Also position vector of centre of mass of the system w.r.t. origin of the refance frame be Rcm then from equation 2
http://physicscatalyst.com
9
• Because of the definition of centre of mass
http://physicscatalyst.com
10
Position vector of centre of mass in terms of co-ordinate components
• Let in a system of many particles the co-ordinates of centre of mass of the system be (X cm ,Y cm ,Z cm ) then position vector of centre of mass would be Rcm =X cm i+Y cm j+Z cm k (9) and position vectors of various particles would be • Putting the values from equation 9 and 10 in equation 6, 7 and 8 we get
• If in any system there are infinite particles of point mass and are distributed continuously also if the distance between them is infinitesimally small then summation in equations 6, 11, 12 and 13 can be replaced by integration. If r is the position vector of very small particle of mass dm of the system then position vector of centre of the system would be
http://physicscatalyst.com
11
and the value of its co-ordinates would be
• If ρ is the density of the system then dm=ρdV where dV is the very small volume element of the system then,
• The centre of mass of a homogeneous body (body having uniform distribution of mass) must coincide with the geometrical centre of the body. In other words we can say that if the homogeneous body has a point , a line or plane of symmetry , then its centre of mass must lie at this point , line or plane of symmetry. • The centre of mass of irregular bodies and shape can be found using equations 14, 15, 16.
Center of Mass of a System of Objects
We now know how to find the center of mass of a collection of point particles as well as that of a continuous solid object. What happens when we want to find the Center of mass of a collection of solid objects By definition, the center of mass of the system is found by integrating the position vector over all of the mass in the system. Since the system is made of two objects, the total integral is just the sum of two separate integrals, one for each object. Let us http://physicscatalyst.com
12 assume a system which contains two solid objects X and Y of any shape,. The center of mass would be given by
1 R = rdm + rdm CM ∫ ∫ M total a b
If we multiply and divide each of these integrals by the mass of the object, we certainly haven't changed anything, but we can now see that the numerator just becomes the mass of each object times the position of its center of mass.
1 rdm rdm 1 R = M + M = M R + M R cm a ∫ b ∫ ()a cm,a b cm,b M total a M a b M b M total
Therefore, we have just arrived at a simple procedure for finding the center of mass of a System of solid objects. Namely, we just treat each object as a point particle with all of It’s mass located at its center of mass! That’s all there is to it!
Example-1 Discrete Distribution
Consider the following masses and their coordinates which make up a "discrete mass" rigid body. m1=5 kg r1=3 i-2k m2=10 kg r1=-3i+2 j-2k m3=5 kg r1=i+2 k Find the center of mass of this mass system
Solution
So,
http://physicscatalyst.com
13
m1 x1 + m2 x2 + m3 x3 5X 3 +10X (− )3 + 5X1 xcm = = = − 5. m1 + m2 + m3 5 +10 + 5
m1 y1 + m2 y2 + m3 y3 5X 0 +10X 2 + 5X 0 ycm = = = 1 m1 + m2 + m3 5 +10 + 5
m1 z1 + m2 z2 + m3 z3 5X (− )2 +10X )2( + 5X 2 zcm = = = 1 m1 + m2 + m3 5 +10 + 5
So
Rcm =-.5 i+j+k
Example -2 Continuous distribution
A straight rod of length L has one of its ends at origin and other at (L, 0). If the mass per unit length of rod is Ax + B .Find the centre of mass (a) L(2AL + 3B)/(3AL + 6B) (b) L(AL + 3B)/(AL + 6B) (c) L(AL - B)/(AL + 2B) (d) none of the above Ans. (a)
∫ xdm ∫ x(Ax + B)dx xcm = = ∫ dm ∫ (Ax + B)dx
L 2( AL + 3B) x = cm 3( AL + 6B)
Dynamics of Center of Mass
Velocity of Center of Mass
http://physicscatalyst.com
14
p is the vector sum of linear momentum of various particles of the system or it is the total linear momentum of the system.
• If no external force is acting on the system then its linear momentum remains constant. Hence in absence of external force
• In the absence of external force velocity of centre of mass of the system remains constant or we can say that centre of mass moves with the constant velocity in absence of external force. • Hence from equation 18 we came to know that the total linear momentum of the system is equal to the product of the total mass of the system and the velocity of the centre of mass of the system which remains constant. • Thus in the absence of the external force it is not necessary that momentum of individual particles of system like p1 , p2 , p3 ...... pn etc. remains constant but their vector sum always remains constant.
http://physicscatalyst.com
15
Acceleration of centre of mass
• Differentiating equation 7 we get
• If m iai = Fi which is the force acting on the i'th particle of the system then
• Net force acting on the i'th is
Fi=Fi(ext) +Fi(int)
• Here internal force is produced due to the mutual interaction between the particles of the system. Therefore, from Newton's third law of motion
is the total external force acting on the system since internal force on the system
http://physicscatalyst.com
16
because of mutual interaction between the particles of the system become equal to zero because of the action reaction law. • Hence from equation 23 it is clear that the centre of mass of the system of particles moves an if the whole mass of the system were concentrated at it. This result holds whether the system is a rigid body with particles in fixed position or system of particles with internal motions.
Center Of Mass equation
Integrating the equation of the motion of center of mass, we get Center of Mass equation which is defined as
1 2 M totalVcm = Fexternal .dlcm 2 ∫
Left hand size denotes the change in kinetic energy of the Center of the mass . It is calculated as if all the mass is concentrated at the center of mass.
Right hand side calculates the work done by the external forces on the center of mass. It is calculated as if all the forces are acting on the center of Mass
Example -3
Two objects, one having twice the mass of the other, are initially at rest. Two forces, one twice as big as the other, act on the objects in opposite directions as shown below
Find the acceleration of the center of mass of the system Solution
Now acceleration of the center of mass of the system is given by
Fext,net a cm = M total
Taking right direction as positive,
Fext =2F-F
Mtotal =2M+M
So http://physicscatalyst.com
17
F a = cm 3M
Direction is towards right
Example 4
An astronaut has just finished fixing a space telescope using a big instrument whose mass is one tenth as big as his mass. You realize you have no way to get back to your spaceship which is 10 meters away from you, so you throw the instrument as hard as you can in a direction away from the spaceship which causes you to move in the opposite direction, toward the spaceship. When you finally reach the space ship, how far away are you from the instrument?
Solution
Key concept : The key concept needed to answer this question is that the acceleration of the center of mass of a system will be zero if the external force on the system is zero.
In this question, we define the system to be astronaut and the instrument, and the center of mass of the system is initially at rest a distance of 10 meters from your spaceship. Since there are no external forces acting on the system and the center of mass is initially at rest, the location of the center of mass of the system can never change! If we choose the initial location of the center of mass to be at x = 0, the center of mass will always be at x = 0.
The location of the center of mass of the system is determined from its definition
(M ast + M inst )xcm = M ast xast + M inst xinst
Now x cm =0
So
M ast xast = −M inst xinst
Since the mass of the instrument is 1/10 of mass of the astronaut, the instrument will always be ten times as far away from the center of mass as you are, and it will always be on the opposite side of the center of mass from you,
So for 10 m move by astronaut, the instrument will move by 100m. Final distance of the instrument from the spaceship will be 110 m http://physicscatalyst.com
18
Example 5
A mass of man m standing on a block of mass M. The system is at rest. The man moves relative in x direction to the block with velocity v' and then stops. Find the velocity of centre of mass Solution: As no external force, there will be no change in center of mass velocity. Initially center of mass is at rest and it will remain in rest
Example 6
Find the displacement of block relative to ground if the displacement of the man with respect to block is x i Solution
Rcm = constant