Chapter 7

Notes
Common student difficulties and concerns (Keep these in mind while reviewing the
written problems)
1) Students tend to think of gravitational potential energy as belonging to a
single object rather than being a property of the system including both the
object and Earth (or whatever the source of the gravitational force on the
object is). In general, students often dont realize that an interaction must
take place between two objects as opposed to just happening to a single
object.
2) As discussed in Chapter 4, students have difficulty choosing and defining a
system and recognizing whether a system is isolated or is closed or open.
3) Students have trouble maintaining a choice of system through an entire
problem. This produces energy accounting difficulties.
4) Students often have a difficult time observing or identifying an interaction.
An interaction between two carts, which occurs over a short period of time, is
easily identified by students. However, friction between a cart and its track,
which gradually decreases the carts kinetic energy over a long time, is not as
easily identified as an interaction.
5) Students have difficulties distinguishing reversible processes from
irreversible processes and distinguishing between closed and open systems.
6) The idea of a field is difficult for many students to grasp.

Suggested Additional Problems

Section 7.1
5
Section 7.2
9, 10
Section 7.3
13
Section 7.4
22
Section 7.5
24
Section 7.6
29, 30
Section 7.7
33, 35, 39

Section 7.8
43 (assigned)
Section 7.9
55, 57 (assigned), 61, 63
Section 7.10
68 (assigned)

Assigned Written Homework

Assigned Problems
(Numbers in bracket refer to list above)
43 [2,3,4,5]
57 [1, 2,3,4,5]
68 [1, 2,3,4,5]
81 [Content Rich]
82 [Content Rich]
Suggested Solutions
Ideas for solutions presented after each problem

Problem 43
Suppose we have a block mounted on a spring and define the zero point for the
elastic potential energy of the system to be the relaxed position (meaning the block
is positioned such that the spring is neither compressed nor stretched). What is the
appropriate sign of the elastic potential energy when the block is repositioned so
that the spring is (a) stretched and (b) compressed? (Hint: Think about what
happens to the elastic potential energy when the stretched or compressed spring is
released.)
Suggested Solution: (a) Positive. Physically the elastic potential energy refers
to energy that is stored in the spring. It cannot be negative, any more than
kinetic energy can be negative. One way of thinking of this is that the elastic
potential energy can be converted into motion (oscillations). And that motion
corresponds to a positive kinetic energy, so there must have been some
positive energy stored. Mathematically, one sees that in the equation for
elastic potential energy the displacement from equilibrium is squared. (b)
Positive, as explained in part (a).
Problem 57
You lean out of your dorm window, which is 12 m above the ground, and toss a 0.12kg ball up to a friend at a window 11 m above you. (a) What is the slowest initial
speed at which you can throw the ball so that he just catches it? (b) If you throw the
ball at this speed and your friend misses it, what is its kinetic energy the instant

before it hits the ground? (c) Suppose you throw the ball directly downward at the
speed calculated in part a. What is its kinetic energy just before it hits the ground?
2
Suggested Solution: (a) Using kinematics we can say vy,i
= -vy,2 f + 2ay Dy so
that if the ball stops exactly as it reaches your friend

vy,i = vy,2 f - 2ay Dy = 0 - 2 ( -9.8m/s2 ) (11m ) = 15m/s (b) The initial energy

when the ball is thrown must be the same as the final energy the instant
before it strikes the ground. Thus E f = Ki +Ui = 12 mvi2 + mghi = 27J (c) Since
the kinetic energy only depends on the speed, not the direction of motion,
nothing about the above expression changes, and we see that the energy is
still equal to 27 J.
Problem 68
A 0.70-kg basketball dropped on a hardwood floor rises back up to 65% of its
original height. (a) If the basketball is dropped from a height of 1.5 m, how much
energy is dissipated in the first bounce? (b) How much energy is dissipated in the
fourth bounce? (c) To which type of incoherent energy is the dissipated energy
converted?
Suggested Solution: (a) If we call the moment of release the initial time, and
the moment at which the ball reaches its peak after bouncing the final time,
then the energy lost can be written entirely in terms of the difference in
gravitational potential energies (because the speed is zero in both cases).
Then DE = U f -Ui = mg ( 0.65hi - hi ) = 3.6J (b) Assuming the percent of
energy lost in each bounce is roughly independent of the initial height, the
3
maximum height between the third and fourth bounce will be ( 0.65 ) hi and
the maximum height between the fourth and fifth bounce will be ( 0.65 ) hi .
Hence the energy change in the fourth bounce will be
4

4
3
DE = U f -Ui = mghi ( 0.65 ) - ( 0.65 ) = -0.99J . Hence 0.99 J are lost in the

fourth bounce. (c) Most energy is converted to heat; some is converted to

sound.
Problem 81
Not looking where you are going, you and your bike collide at 12 m/s into the back
of a car stopped at a red light. The car does not have its brakes applied and so is
jolted forward. The driver immediately leaps out crying, Whiplash! Facing a day in
court, you have to determine the acceleration of the car as a result of the collision.
You note that you and your bike (combined inertia 80 kg) came to a complete halt in
the collision and that the rim of your front wheel was pushed all the way to the
center hub. The diameter of the bike wheel before the crash was 0.75 m, and a
reference book tells you that the inertia of the car is 1800 kg.

Suggested Solution: In reality the acceleration may not have been constant.
But since we only have information from before and after the collision (no
data during the collision itself) we are forced to obtain an approximate value
by assuming constant acceleration. In that case, we can find the acceleration
of the bicycle, and use the ratio of inertias to determine the acceleration of
the car. First, we find the final velocity of the bicycle. We do this by using the
conservation of momentum. Let the initial direction of motion of the bicycle
be the +x direction. Then mBvBx,i + mC vCx,i = mBvBx, f + mC vCx, f so that

vCx, f = 0.533m/s . Now that we have the initial and final velocities of the car, as
well as the distance over which the bicycle interacted with it, we can use
v2 - v2
aC,x = Cx, f Cx,i = 0.38m/s2 . Hence the acceleration of the car was 0.38m/s2
2Dx
forward.
Problem 82
An amusement park commissions your company to design
a roller coaster. Your company specializes in an approach in which the cars are
accelerated on a horizontal section of track by magnetic motors rather than being
hauled up to the top of a hill and released. The park officials would like the riders to
be accelerated via your horizontal design and then sent straight up a vertical length
of track 66.4 m tall. (After the cars pass this high point, the ride is the regular ups
and downs of a conventional roller coaster.) Your calculations tell you that 212
motors will get the loaded cars up to the necessary speed at an acceleration of 0.85g,
but you wonder whether or not the park has enough horizontal distance available
for the acceleration device.
Suggested Solution: We know that the roller coaster must have enough
kinetic energy at the beginning of the hill for it to reach the top. During this
process, we will assume that friction is negligible such that we can require
that the initial kinetic energy be greater than or equal to the final
gravitational potential energy. Let us call the moment the coaster begins
accelerating instant 0, the moment the acceleration stops instant 1, and the
moment the coaster reaches its maximum height instant 2. Then K1 U2
2
2
which means 12 mvmin,1
= mgh2 so that vmin,1
= 2gh2 . Now, we know the
acceleration of the roller coaster along the horizontal portion. We can use
kinematics to determine over what distance the cars must have this
acceleration in order to reach the above height:
2
2
vx,1
- vx,0
( 2gh2 ) - 0 = 78m .
Dx =
=
2ax
2 ( 0.85g )