AP Physics 1 : Circular, Rotational, and Harmonic Motion

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Physics 1

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Example Questions

Example Question #1003 : Ap Physics 1

Pluto distance to sun:

Determine the translational velocity of Pluto.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Combine equations:

Convert to meters and seconds and plug in values:

Example Question #1001 : Ap Physics 1

Consider the following system:

 

Spinning rod with masses at end

Two spherical masses, A and B, are attached to the end of a rigid rod with length l. The rod is attached to a fixed point, p, which is at a height, h, above the ground. The rod spins around the fixed point in a vertical circle that is traced in grey.  is the angle at which the L side of the rod makes with the horizontal at any given time ( in the figure and can be negative if mass A is above the horizontal).

As the rod rotates through the horizontal, the masses are traveling at a rate of . What is  when mass A is at its highest point. Neglect air resistance and internal friction forces.

Note:  is the angle between mass A and the horizontal and thus has a range of .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We can use the expression for conservation of energy to solve this problem:

Our initial state will be when the rod is horizontal, and our final state will be when mass A is at its highest point. If we assume that point p is at a height of 0 and the system is at rest and mass A is at its highest point, we can eliminate initial potential energy and final kinetic energy to get:

Expanding these terms and applying them to both masses, we get:

We don't need to separate the velocity components for each mass since they are always traveling at the same speed. Since the masses are attached to a rigid rod that spins around its midpoint, we know that the heights of the two masses (with respect to point p) will be equal and opposite. In expression form:

Substituting this into our equation, we get:

Rearranging for final height, we get:

We have values for all of these variables, so time to plug and chug:

Now we can use the sine function to determine what the angle c is at this point:

Where the opposite side is the height we just calculated and the hypotenuse is half the length of the rod. Therefore, we get:

Taking the inverse sine of both sides, we get:

Substituting in our values, we get:

Example Question #1005 : Ap Physics 1

A solid sphere of mass  with a radius  is held at rest at the top of a ramp with a length  set at an angle  above the horizontal. The sphere is released and allowed to role down the ramp. What is the instantaneous angular velocity of the sphere as it reaches the bottom of the ramp? Neglect air resistance and internal frictional forces.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let's begin with the expression for conservation of energy:

The problem statement tells us that the sphere is initially at rest, so we can eliminate initial kinetic energy. Also, if we assume that the height at the bottom of the ramp is 0, we can eliminate final potential energy. We then have:

Then we can expand both of these terms. We need to remember that kinetic energy will have both a linear and rotational aspect. We then get equation (1):

Moving from left to right, let's begin substituting in expressions for unknown variables. The first term we don't know is height. However, we can use the length of the slope and the its angle to determine the height at the top of the ramp:

Rearranging for height, we get equation (2):

The next term we don't know is final velocity. We can use the relationship between angular and linear velocity:

Rearranging for linear velocity, we get equation (3):

Moving on, the next term we don't know is moment of inertia. We will use the expression for a sphere to get equation (4):

The last term is final rotational velocity. However, this is what we're solving for, so we'll leave it alone. Now let's substitute equations 2, 3, and 4 back into equation 1:

Multiplying each side the equation by , we get:

Factoring the right side of the equation:

Rearranging for final rotational velocity:

We know each of these values, so time to plug and chug:

Example Question #1011 : Ap Physics 1

A spinning disk is rotating at a rate of in the positive counterclockwise direction. If the disk is speeding up at a rate of , find the disk's angular velocity in after four seconds.

Possible Answers:

None of these

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The angular velocity is given by:

Example Question #1012 : Ap Physics 1

 model train completes a circle of radius  in . Determine the angular frequency in .

Possible Answers:

None of these

Correct answer:

Explanation:

One circle is equal to , thus

Example Question #11 : Circular And Rotational Motion

Two cars are racing side by side on a circular race track. Which has the greater angular velocity?

Possible Answers:

The outside car

The inside car

Impossible to determine

They are the same

Correct answer:

They are the same

Explanation:

If the cars are racing side by side on a circular track, then they have the same angular velocity, because they complete their circles in the same amount of time.

Example Question #1014 : Ap Physics 1

Question 2

Matthew is swinging a bucket () in a vertical circle via a rope () as shown in the figure. At the bottom of the circular path, the rope's tension is . What is the bucket's speed at this time?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

This is a centripetal force problem. It's important to know that when you draw your free body diagram (FBD), centripetal force () isn't drawn, similar to how net forces () aren't drawn.  is actually the centripetal or circular form of. So when we talk about circular motion such as this, we can set the two equal to each other. Why is this? Well we are trying to translate this object's circular motion into it's linear velocity (our answer).

We can now set, or  equal to the combination of vertical forces in our FBD

Question 2fbd 

But like we said earlier, we need to connect our linear forces to our centripetal forces. Remember this equation?

Now let's put it all together

Time to pull in some algebra now. Remember we want the speed of the bucket, or the velocity of the bucket at the lowest point of the circle, so solve for :

If you plut in everything and solve (remember to use PEMDAS), your answer should be

Example Question #1015 : Ap Physics 1

A yo-yo professional is doing a bunch of tricks to show off to his new girlfriend. He manages to do an super-mega around-the-world which entails swinging the yo-yo (, string =  = ) around the path shown below 4 times in . 

Yoyo

What is the centripetal acceleration of the yo-yo?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Centripetal acceleration is as follows:

All we need to do is solve and plug in for 

 = distance traveled and t is the time it took to travel that distance

We know that the yo-yo made 4 revolutions in .

One revolution is the circumference of the yo-yo path: 

So we can either solve for in terms of how far the yo-yo went in one second (I), or how long it took to make one revolution (II); I'll show both, either one is correct if you wish to plug in

or

REMEMBER: Both of these will give you the same answer (check it out if you're good at algebra). Physics is all about comfort in manipulation so choose the way that suits you!

Now plug this into our  equation. Lucky for you, the radius was 

Note: I put in the units so you can see how they cancel out algebraically 

Example Question #1 : Angular Momentum

In an isolated system, the moment of inertia of a rotating object is halved. What happens to the angular velocity of the object?

Possible Answers:

It is doubled.

It is halved.

It remains the same.

It is quartered.

It is quadrupled.

Correct answer:

It is doubled.

Explanation:

In an isolated system, there is no net torque. If there is no net torque on the system, then the total angular momentum of the system remains the same. The angular momentum of a rotating object is equal to the moment of inertia of the object multiplied by the object's angular velocity.

 is the symbol for angular momentum,  is the moment of inertia, and  is the angular velocity.

Therefore, if the moment of inertia, , is halved, then for the angular momentum, , to remain constant, the angular velocity, , must be doubled. This is because , which is the multiplicative identity. Anything multiplied by one remains the same. So, the final angular velocity would be twice as large as it was originally.

Example Question #1 : Angular Momentum

I start pushing a merry-go-round with a torque of 10 Newton-meters. It has a moment of inertia of . What is its rotational speed after 3 seconds assuming it starts at rest?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The angular moment of the merry-go-round after 3 seconds is simply

Angular momentum is also given by

Plugging in 30 for  gives us

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