All High School Physics Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #33 : Harmonic Motion
A spring has a mass attached to one, which oscillates with a period of . What is the frequency?
The mass has no bearing on the relationship between frequency and period. This relationship is given by the equation:
Given the period, the frequency will be equal to its reciprocal.
Example Question #6 : Period Of Shm
A pendulum has a period of on Earth. What is its period on Mars, where the acceleration due to gravity is about that on Earth?
To begin we want to determine the original length of the pendulum.
The equation to determine the period of pendulum is
We can rearrange this equation to solve for length ().
We can now solve for the length knowing that the period of the pendulum is 2 seconds.
Now we can use the same equation and instead substitute in the value for the acceleration due to gravity on Mars.
Example Question #7 : Period Of Shm
How long must a simple pendulum be if it is to make exactly one swing per second? (That is one complete oscillation would take 2 seconds.)
The equation to determine the period of pendulum is
We can rearrange this equation to solve for length ().
We can now solve for the length knowing that the period of the pendulum is 2 seconds.
Example Question #1 : Period Of Shm
If a particle undergoes Simple Harmonic motion with an amplitude of . What is the total distance it travels in one period?
The period is how long it takes to complete one oscillation. In this case, a complete oscillation would take the object away from the center (the amplitude), travel back to the center, travel below the equilibrium point away, and then travel back to the center. Therefore the total distance traveled is times the amplitude as it must travel away, back, below, and back again. Therefore the total distance traveled is .
Example Question #1 : Period Of Shm
What is the period of a simple pendulum long when it is in a freely falling elevator?
Infinite
Infinite
The period of a simple pendulum on the free-falling is infinite because at a time of free-falling elevator the gravitational constant will equal zero which leads to an increase in the value in the numerator to infinite. Thus, the period of time in a free-falling elevator is infinite.
Example Question #41 : Harmonic Motion
A vertical spring with a spring constant of is stationary. An mass is attached to the end of the spring. What is the maximum displacement that the spring will stretch?
The best way to solve this problem is by using energy. Notice that the spring on its own is stationary. That means its initial total energy at that moment is zero. When the mass is attached, the spring stretches out, giving it spring potential energy (PEspring).
Where does that energy come from? The only place it can come from is the addition of the mass. Since the system is vertical, this mass will have gravitational potential energy.
Use the law of conservation of energy to set these two energies equal to each other:
We are trying to solve for displacement, and now we have an equation in terms of our variable.
Start by diving both sides by Δy to get rid of the Δy2 on the right side of the equation.
We are given values for the spring constant, the mass, and gravity. Using these values will allow use to solve for the displacement.
Note that the displacement will be negative because the spring is stretched in the downward direction due to gravity.
Example Question #42 : Harmonic Motion
A mass is placed at the end of a spring. The spring is compressed . What is the maximum velocity of the mass if the spring has a spring constant of ?
If we're looking for the maximum velocity, that will happen when all the energy in the system is kinetic energy.
We can use the law of conservation of energy to see . So, if we can find the initial potential energy, we can find the final kinetic energy, and use that to find the mass's final velocity.
The formula for spring potential energy is:
Plug in our given values and solve:
The formula for kinetic energy is:
Since , that means that .
We can plug in that information to the formula for kinetic energy to solve for the maximum velocity:
Example Question #43 : Harmonic Motion
A mass on a string is released and swings freely. Which of the following best explains the energy of the pendulum when the string is perpendicular to the ground?
The mass has equal amounts of kinetic and potential energy
The mass has maximum kinetic energy
The mass has maximum potential energy
The mass has mostly potential energy, but there is some kinetic energy
The mass has mostly kinetic energy, but there is some potential energy
The mass has maximum kinetic energy
Conservation of energy dictates that the total mechanical energy will remain constant. Initially, the mass will not be moving and will be at its highest height. When released, it will begin to travel downward (lose potential energy) and gain velocity (gain kinetic energy). When the mass reaches the bottommost point in the swing, the potential energy will be at a minimum and the kinetic energy will be at a maximum. This point corresponds to the string being perpendicular to the ground.
Example Question #44 : Harmonic Motion
Derive a formula for the maximum speed of a simple pendulum bob in terms of , the length L and the angle of swing .
We can start out by examining the energy in the pendulum. At the top of the swing, there is gravitational potential energy. At the bottom of the swing there is kinetic energy. The law of conservation of energy states that these two values must be the same.
We know the equations for gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy to be
We can set these equal to each other.
Since the mass is constant, it falls out of both sides of the equation.
Let’s rearrange and solve for v by itself.
We don’t know the height of the pendulum at this point and need to get it in terms of the length of the pendulum.
If we knew the angle that the pendulum made with the vertical equilibrium point, we could determine how far off the ground the pendulum was. We can create a triangle with the hypotenuse as the length of the string and the angle between the pendulum and the equilibrium point.
This adjacent side can then be subtracted from the original length of the pendulum to determine the height off the ground.
We can substitute this back into our equation
Example Question #45 : Harmonic Motion
A bullet with mass hits a ballistic pendulum with length and mass and lodges in it. When the bullet hits the pendulum it swings up from the equilibrium position and reaches an angle at its maximum. Determine the bullet’s velocity.
We will need to start at the end of the situation and work backwards in order to determine the velocity of the bullet. At the very end, the pendulum with the bullet reaches its maximum height and therefore comes to a stop. It has gravitational potential energy. At the bottom of the pendulum right after the bullet collides with it, it has kinetic energy due to the velocity of the bullet. With the law of conservation of energy we can set the kinetic energy of the pendulum right after the collision equal to the gravitational potential energy of the pendulum at the highest point.
To determine the height of the pendulum we will need to use trig and triangles to find the height. We know that the pendulum makes a 30 degree angle with the equilibrium position at its maximum height. The length of the pendulum is provided which is the hypotenuse of this triangle. We need to find the adjacent side of this triangle. We can use cosine to determine this.
We can now subtract this value from the length of the pendulum to determine how high off the ground the pendulum is at its highest point.
We can now set the kinetic energy of the pendulum right after the collision equal to the gravitational potential energy of the pendulum at the highest point.
The mass is the same throughout so it falls out of the equation.
The pendulum with the bullet was moving after the collision. We can now use momentum to determine the speed of the bullet before the collision. Conservation of momentum states that the momentum before the collision must equal the momentum after the collision.
They both move together after the collision
Since the pendulum was not moving at the beginning
We can now plug in these values and solve for the missing piece.
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