PHY 2231

Tutorial I
April 4, 2018

1. A table has three legs that are 1.00 m in length and a fourth leg that is longer by
d = 0.50 mm. A steel cylinder of mass M = 300 kg is placed on the table (which has mass
m << M ) so that all the four legs are compressed and the table is now level and not wobbly
anymore.The legs are cylindrical with cross-sectional area A = 1.0 cm2 and Young’s modulus
Y = 1.3 × 1010 Nm−2 . What are the magnitudes of the forces on the legs from the floor?

2. A lead brick rests horizontally on cylinders A and B. The areas of the top faces of the
cylinders are related by AA = 2AB and the Young’s moduli are related by YA = 2YB . The
cylinders had identical lengths before the brick was placed on them.
a. What fraction of the brick’s mass is supported by cylinder A?
b. If the horizontal distances between the center of mass of the lead brick and the
centerlines of the cylinders are dA and dB respectively, find the ratio dA /dB .

3. A 100 kg log hangs by two steel wires, A and B, both of radius 1.20 mm. Initially,
wire A was 2.50 m long and 2.00 mm shorter than wire B. The log is now horizontal.
a. What are the magnitudes of the forces on the log from wires A and B?
b. If the horizontal distances between the center of mass of the log and the wires A and
B are dA and dB respectively, find the ratio dA /dB .

4. An 800-kg elevator hangs by a steel cable for which the allowable stress is 1.2 × 108
Nm−2 . What is the minimum diameter required if the elevator accelerates upwards at 1.5
ms−2 ?

5. Two cylinder shafts have the mass and length and are made of the same material.
One is solid and the other, which is hollow, has an external radius which is twice the internal
radius.
Compare both their torsional rigidities and the maximum strains produced by equal
twisting torques.

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 6. A block of mass m = 0.5 kg is attached to a horizontal spring whose spring constant
is k = 50 Nm−1 . At t = 0.1 s, the displacement x = −0.2 m and the velocity v = +0.5ms−1 .
Assume x(t) = A sin(ωt + φ).
a. Find the amplitude and the phase constant.
b. Write the equation for x(t).
c. When does the condition x = 0.2 m and v = −0.5 ms−1 occur for the first time?

7. A block of mass M is attached to a horizontal spring of mass m on a frictionless

surface.
a. Show that when the velocity of the block is v, the kinetic energy of the spring is 16 mv 2 .
b. What is the period of oscillation?

8. The general solution for an under-damped system is

γ
x(t) = e− 2 [A cos(ωt) + B sin(ωt)]

where γ is the damping constant and A and B are constants.

Show that the above expression can be written as
γ
x(t) = e− 2 [C cos(ωt − φ)]

where the phase constant φ = tan(B/A) and C 2 = A2 + B 2 .