Class 11 Physics Motion in a Plane: NCERT Solutions for Question 19

Rain is falling vertically with a speed of 30 m s^–1. A woman rides a bicycle with a speed of 10 m s^–1 in the north to south direction. What is the direction in which she should hold her umbrella?

On an open ground, a motorist follows a track that turns to his left by an angle of 60° after every 500 m. Starting from a given turn, specify the displacement of the motorist at the third, sixth and eighth turn. Compare the magnitude of the displacement with the total path length covered by the motorist in each case.

Establish the following vector inequalities geometrically or otherwise:

(a) |a + b| ≤ |a| + |b|

(b) |a + b| ≥ ||a| − |b||

(c) |a − b| ≤ |a| + |b|

(d) |a − b| ≥ ||a| − |b||

When does the equality sign above apply?

A stone tied to the end of a string 80 cm long is whirled in a horizontal circle with a constant speed. If the stone makes 14 revolutions in 25 s, what is the magnitude and direction of acceleration of the stone?

Given a + b + c + d = 0, which of the following statements are correct:

(a) a, b, c, and d must each be a null vector,

(b) The magnitude of (a + c) equals the magnitude of (b+ d),

(c) The magnitude of a can never be greater than the sum of the magnitudes of b, c, and d,

(d) b + c must lie in the plane of a and d if a and d are not collinear, and in the line of a and d, if they are collinear?

An aircraft executes a horizontal loop of radius 1.00 km with a steady speed of 900 km/h. Compare its centripetal acceleration with the acceleration due to gravity.

Three girls skating on a circular ice ground of radius 200 m start from a point P on the edge of the ground and reach a point Q diametrically opposite to P following different paths as shown in Fig. 4.20. What is the magnitude of the displacement vector for each? For which girl is this equal to the actual length of the path skated?

Some of the most profound statements on the nature of science have come from Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all time. What do you think did Einstein mean when he said : “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible”?

The sign of work done by a force on a body is important to understand. State carefully if the following quantities are positive or negative:

(a) work done by a man in lifting a bucket out of a well by means of a rope tied to the bucket.

(b) work done by gravitational force in the above case,

(c) work done by friction on a body sliding down an inclined plane,

(d) work done by an applied force on a body moving on a rough horizontal plane with uniform velocity,

(e) work done by the resistive force of air on a vibrating pendulum in bringing it to rest.

A geyser heats water flowing at the rate of 3.0 litres per minute from 27 °C to 77 °C. If the geyser operates on a gas burner, what is the rate of consumption of the fuel if its heat of combustion is 4.0 x 10⁴ J/g?

Estimate the fraction of molecular volume to the actual volume occupied by oxygen gas at STP. Take the diameter of an oxygen molecule to be 3Å.

Figures 14.29 correspond to two circular motions. The radius of the circle, the period of revolution, the initial position, and the sense of revolution (i.e. clockwise or anti-clockwise) are indicated on each figure.

Obtain the corresponding simple harmonic motions of the x-projection of the radius vector of the revolving particle P, in each case.

Write in about 1000 words a fiction piece based on your speculation on the science and technology of the twenty-second century.

You have learnt that a travelling wave in one dimension is represented by a function y = f (x, t) where x and t must appear in the combination x - v t  or  x + v t, i.e. y = f (x ± v t). Is the converse true? Examine if the following functions for y can possibly represent a travelling wave:

(a) ( x - v t )²

(b) log [ x  + vt / x₀]

(c) 1 /  (x + vt)

A block of mass 15 kg is placed on a long trolley. The coefficient of static friction between the block and the trolley is 0.18. The trolley accelerates from rest with 0.5 ms^-2 for 20 s and then moves with uniform velocity. Discuss the motion of the block as viewed by (a) a stationary observer on the ground, (b) an observer moving with the trolley.

Torques of equal magnitude are applied to a hollow cylinder and a solid sphere, both having the same mass and radius. The cylinder is free to rotate about its standard axis of symmetry, and the sphere is free to rotate about an axis passing through its centre. Which of the two will acquire a greater angular speed after a given time?

The shells of crabs found around a particular coastal location in Japan seem mostly to resemble the legendary face of a Samurai. Given below are two explanations of this observed fact. Which of these strikes you as a scientific explanation ?

(a) A tragic sea accident several centuries ago drowned a young Samurai. As a tribute to his bravery, nature through its inscrutable ways immortalised his face by imprinting it on the crab shells in that area.

(b) After the sea tragedy, fishermen in that area, in a gesture of honour to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidentally had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently, the particular shape of the crab shell survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.

[Note : This interesting illustration taken from Carl Sagan’s ‘The Cosmos’ highlights the fact that often strange and inexplicable facts which on the first sight appear ‘supernatural’ actually turn out to have simple scientific explanations. Try to think out other examples of this kind].

A steam engine delivers 5.4 x 10⁸ J of work per minute and services 3.6 x 10⁹ J of heat per minute from its boiler. What is the efficiency of the engine? How much heat is wasted per minute?

( i ) The time period of a body having simple harmonic motion depends on the mass m of the body and the force constant k:

T =2π √m/k

A simple pendulum exhibits simple harmonic motion. Then why does the time period of a pendulum not depend upon its mass?

( ii ) For small angle oscillations, a simple pendulum exhibits simple harmonic motion ( more or less). For larger angles of oscillation, detailed analysis show that T is greater than 2π√ l/g. Explain.

( iii ) A boy with a wristwatch on his hand jumps from a helicopter. Will the wrist watch give the correct time during free fall?

( iv ) Find the frequency of oscillation of a simple pendulum that is free falling from a tall bridge.

Precise measurements of physical quantities are a need of science. For example, to ascertain the speed of an aircraft, one must have an accurate method to find its positions at closely separated instants of time. This was the actual motivation behind the discovery of radar in World War II. Think of different examples in modern science where precise measurements of length, time, mass etc. are needed. Also, wherever you can, give a quantitative idea of the precision needed.