Problem 1. (75%)
WeBWorK set # 2.
Problem 2. (12.5%)
Suppose you are navigating a spacecraft far from
other objects. The mass
of the spacecraft is 1.5 x 105 kg (about 150 tons). The rocket engines are shut off, and
you are coasting along with a constant velocity of <0, 20, 0> km/s. As you pass the location <12, 15,
0> km you briefly fire side thruster rockets, so that your spacecraft
experiences a net force of <6x104, 0, 0> N for 3.4
s. The ejected gases have a mass that is
small compared to the mass of the spacecraft. You then continue coasting with the rocket engines turned
off.
a. Where are you an hour later?
b. What approximations and/or simplifying assumptions did you make in
your analysis?
Problem 3.
(12.5%)
In the software download area of the Physics 141
web site (located at http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy141/Software/SoftwareIndex.htm)
you will find a movie that shows the launch of the space shuttle (NASAHW02.mp4). Use
Logger Pro to analyze this movie and answer the following questions:
a. What is the vertical acceleration of the space shuttle?
b. What is the force generated by the engines?
The procedure used to carry out the video analyses used in Phy 141 is illustarted on this page.
Hand
in a graph showing the velocity of the shuttle as function of time
and describe how you obtained the acceleration of the shuttle and the
force generated by its engines.
The solutions to Problems 2 and 3 must be submitted in pdf format to Box.
Problem 4. (Optional; 25% extra credit) Write a program in glowsript to display the motion os a cart traversing on a track at constant velocity.
a. Create a box to represent a track 2 meters long, 10 cm
wide, and 5 cm high. Orient the
long axis of the track along the x axis.
b. Create a second box to represent a low-friction cart that
is 10 cm long, 4 cm high, and 6 cm wide. Give this box a symbolic name so that you refer to it later in the
program.
c. Position the cart so that it is 1 cm above the track,
and its left edge lines up with the left end of the track.
d. Create a vector variable to represent the velocity of
the cart. Give the cart an initial
velocity of (0.2, 0, 0) m/s.
e. Using a time step of 0.01 seconds, write a loop to use
the position update formula to animate the motion of the cart as it travels at
constant velocity from one end of the track to the other.
f. Change the program to start the cart at the right end
of the track and move to the left.
g. What would happen if the cart had a nonzero y velocity component? Try it!
Submit the
actual programs or a link to your public area of glowscript and your answers to the questions in pdf format via email to Professor Wolfs (wolfs@pas.rochester.edu). The name of the file should be
hw02p04XXYYYYYYYY.txt and/or hw02p04XXYYYYYYYY.pdf ,where XX are your initials and YYYYYYYY is your student id
number and the subject of your email should start with hw02p04XXYYYYYYYY.
Last updated on
Monday, August 24, 2026 12:59
