Two towns A and B are connected by a regular bus service with a bus leaving in either direction every T minutes. A man cycling with a speed of 20 km h–1 in the direction A to B notices that a bus goes past him every 18 min in the direction of his motion, and every 6 min in the opposite direction. What is the period T of the bus service and with what speed (assumed constant) do the buses ply on the road?
Let V be the speed of the bus running between towns A and B.
Speed of the cyclist, v = 20 km/h
Relative speed of the bus moving in the direction of the cyclist
= V – v = (V – 20) km/h
The bus went past the cyclist every 18 min i.e. 18/60 h, (when he moves in the direction of the bus).
Distance covered by the bus = (V - 20) 18/60………….. (i)
Since one bus leaves after every T minutes, the distance travelled by the bus will be equal to:
V x T/60 .............(ii)
Both equations (i) and (ii) are equal.
(V - 20) x 18/60 = VT / 60 .............. (iii)
Relative speed of the bus moving in the opposite direction of the cyclist = (V + 20) km/h
Time taken by the bus to go past the cyclist = 6 min = 6/60 h
∴(V - 20) x 6/60 = VT / 60 ................ (iv)
From equations (iii) and (iv), we get
(V - 20) x 6/60 = (V - 20) x 18/60
V - 20 = 3V - 60
2V = 80
V = 40 km/h
Substituting the value of V in equation (iv), we get
(40+20) x 6/60 = 40T/60
60 x 6/60 = 40T/60
6 = 40T/60
⇒ 40T = 6x60
⇒ 40T = 360
⇒ T = 360/40
⇒ T = 9 min
A drunkard walking in a narrow lane takes 5 steps forward and 3 steps backward, followed again by 5 steps forward and 3 steps backward, and so on. Each step is 1 m long and requires 1 s. Plot the x-t graph of his motion. Determine graphically and otherwise how long the drunkard takes to fall in a pit 13 m away from the start.
A woman starts from her home at 9.00 am, walks with a speed of 5 km h-1 on a straight road up to her office 2.5 km away, stays at the office up to 5.00 pm, and returns home by an auto with a speed of 25 km h-1. Choose suitable scales and plot the x-t graph of her motion.
A ball is dropped from a height of 90 m on a floor. At each collision with the floor, the ball loses one tenth of its speed. Plot the speed-time graph of its motion between t = 0 to 12 s.
A man walks on a straight road from his home to a market 2.5 km away with a speed of 5 km h –1. Finding the market closed, he instantly turns and walks back home with a speed of 7.5 km h–1. What is the
a) magnitude of average velocity, and
b) average speed of the man over the interval of time (i) 0 to 30 min, (ii) 0 to 50 min, (iii) 0 to 40 min?
[Note: You will appreciate from this exercise why it is better to define average speed as total path length divided by time, and not as magnitude of average velocity. You would not like to tell the tired man on his return home that his average speed was zero!]
The position-time (x-t) graphs for two children A and B returning from their school O to their homes P and Q respectively are shown in Fig. 3.19. Choose the correct entries in the brackets below;
(a) (A/B) lives closer to the school than (B/A)
(b) (A/B) starts from the school earlier than (B/A)
(c) (A/B) walks faster than (B/A)
(d) A and B reach home at the (same/different) time
(e) (A/B) overtakes (B/A) on the road (once/twice).
A car moving along a straight highway with a speed of 126 km h–1 is brought to a stop within a distance of 200 m. What is the retardation of the car (assumed uniform), and how long does it take for the car to stop?
A player throws a ball upwards with an initial speed of 29.4 m s–1. What is the direction of acceleration during the upward motion of the ball? What are the velocity and acceleration of the ball at the highest point of its motion?
Choose the x = 0 m and t = 0 s to be the location and time of the ball at its highest point, vertically downward direction to be the positive direction of x-axis, and give the signs of position, velocity and acceleration of the ball during its upward, and downward motion. To what height does the ball rise and after how long does the ball return to the player’s hands? (Take g = 9.8 m s–2 and neglect air resistance).
Explain clearly, with examples, the distinction between:
a) magnitude of displacement (sometimes called distance) over an interval of time, and the total length of path covered by a particle over the same interval;
b) magnitude of average velocity over an interval of time, and the average speed over the same interval. [Average speed of a particle over an interval of time is defined as the total path length divided by the time interval]. Show in both (a) and (b) that the second quantity is either greater than or equal to the first.
When is the equality sign true? [For simplicity, consider one-dimensional motion only].
Read each statement below carefully and state with reasons and examples, if it is true or false; A particle in one-dimensional motion
(a) with zero speed at an instant may have non-zero acceleration at that instant
(b) with zero speed may have non-zero velocity,
(c) with constant speed must have zero acceleration,
(d) with positive value of acceleration mustbe speeding up.
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.
Science, like any knowledge, can be put to good or bad use, depending on the user. Given below are some of the applications of science. Formulate your views on whether the particular application is good, bad or something that cannot be so clearly categorised :
(a) Mass vaccination against small pox to curb and finally eradicate this disease from the population. (This has already been successfully done in India).
(b) Television for eradication of illiteracy and for mass communication of news and ideas.
(c) Prenatal sex determination
(d) Computers for increase in work efficiency
(e) Putting artificial satellites into orbits around the Earth
(f ) Development of nuclear weapons
(g) Development of new and powerful techniques of chemical and biological warfare).
(h) Purification of water for drinking
(i) Plastic surgery
(j ) Cloning
A trolley of mass 300 kg carrying a sandbag of 25 kg is moving uniformly with a speed of 27 km/h on a frictionless track. After a while, sand starts leaking out of a hole on the floor of the trolley at the rate of 0.05 kg s-1. What is the speed of the trolley after the entire sand bag is empty?
A large steel wheel is to be fitted on to a shaft of the same material. At 27 °C, the outer diameter of the shaft is 8.70 cm and the diameter of the central hole in the wheel is 8.69 cm. The shaft is cooled using ‘dry ice’. At what temperature of the shaft does the wheel slip on the shaft? Assume coefficient of linear expansion of the steel to be constant over the required temperature range: αsteel = 1.20 x 10–5 K–1.
Answer carefully, with reasons:
(a) In an elastic collision of two billiard balls, is the total kinetic energy conserved during the short time of collision of the balls (i.e. when they are in contact)?
(b) Is the total linear momentum conserved during the short time of an elastic collision of two balls?
(c) What are the answers to (a) and (b) for an inelastic collision?
(d) If the potential energy of two billiard balls depends only on the separation distance between their centres, is the collision elastic or inelastic? (Note, we are talking here of potential energy corresponding to the force during collision, not gravitational potential energy).
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?
A block of mass 25 kg is raised by a 50 kg man in two different ways as shown in Fig. 5.19. What is the action on the floor by the man in the two cases? If the floor yields to a normal force of 700 N, which mode should the man adopt to lift the block without the floor yielding?
A hospital uses an ultrasonic scanner to locate tumours in a tissue. What is the wavelength of sound in the tissue in which the speed of sound is 1.7 km s-1? The operating frequency of the scanner is 4.2 MHz.
The mass of a box measured by a grocer's balance is 2.300 kg. Two gold pieces of masses 20.15 g and 20.17 g are added to the box. What is
(a) the total mass of the box,
(b) the difference in the masses of the pieces to correct significant figures?
Toricelli's barometer used mercury. Pascal duplicated it using French wine of density 984 kg m-3. Determine the height of the wine column for normal atmospheric pressure.
A metre long narrow bore held horizontally (and closed at one end) contains a 76 cm long mercury thread, which traps a 15 cm column of air. What happens if the tube is held vertically with the open end at the bottom?