Preflight assignment 9


(Closed. Preflights are due at 10 AM on Tuesdays. )


  1. Look at Taylor's Fig. 5.4. In your own words, where did that come from? Why does THAT triangle (with those particular choices of sides) tell us about delta? (Could he have equally well drawn it with B1 and B2 flipped, for instance?)



  2. Taylor's Example 5.2 is an elegant example of the ubiquity of SHM. Please explain to me in your own (brief) words where Eq 5.15 comes from, what does it mean? (Could you remember it/reproduce it on your own without the book? How about on a test?) Then, can you explain the next equation (it's unnumbered, but 4 lines from the top of page 169, the one with m x'' on the left side) In particular, what's the deal with the second term on the right side, the one that's: -rho g A (d0 + x), what is that coming from, physically?
    Finally, please take a moment to convince yourself that the above ODE (plus the ever-important Equation 5.15) DO in fact result in the lovely, simple, final ODE (which is again unnumbered, but it says x'' = -(g/d0) x.)



    figure


  3. The figure above shows x(t) for two different oscillators. If we use the form x(t)=Acos(omega t + phi), which of the constants (A, omega, and/or phi) are DIFFERENT for the two oscillators? For any that are different, explain whether the parameter for oscillator 2 is LARGER or SMALLER.




  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.