Preflight assignment 2


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  1. Look (again) at Example 1.2 in Taylor, and then my "pendulum example" lecture notes (page 13 and 14) My lecture notes are always available before class, on our main page, upper left .
    Are there ANY meaningful differences between Taylor's "half-pipe" example, and the "pendulum" example I worked out ? If not, say so - if so, what's different? ...


  2. Again in that same example, Taylor and I both work out a formula for Newton's 2nd law in the radial direction. Use that to figure out what the tension in the pendulum string is (or alternatively, the normal force in the half pipe), in terms of other parameters. (I know it's hard to write equations in this webform, but just do your best in Ascii, e.g. using expressions like "rhat" or "rdot" or "phi-doubledot" or "v^2", etc) There's not much ALGEBRA for you to do here - my notes almost do this for you (!) but not quite, it's just a quick extension. But the important thing is the next step: Explain the physical meaning of your resulting equation as best you can, what do all the terms mean physically, how do you interpret them?




  3. The new reading assignment for this week is Taylor 2.1 and 2.2 and Boas 8.3. This question focuses on Taylor's Example 2.1. After reading that example again, tell me whether you think air drag should be modeled as linear, or quadratic when you are playing volleyball. Briefly, how did you decide? Now invent a different physics situation (not one explicitly listed by Taylor, please) where you think the OTHER model would be best to use. (Briefly, explain? )



  4. Please submit a question you have about the reading assigned for the upcoming class. What seemed hard, was something confusing, what would you like us to spend class time on? If you can't come up with any question, how about a comment - (did anything strike you as interesting? )
    Reminder: the reading assignments are on our course calendar


    Thanks for your time.

Optional! - below is a space for any additional relevant comments, thoughts, or suggestions you have.




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