Module 5 Physics Problems

11. Graphically find the sum of the following

Lesson 1 Vectors pairs of vectors, whose characteristics are
Mastering Concepts shown.
1. How would you add two vectors
graphically?

2. Which of the following actions is

permissible when you graphically add one
vector to another: moving the vector,
rotating the vector, or changing the vector’s
length? a. D and A
b. C and D
3. In your own words, write a clear definition c. C and A
of the resultant of two or more vectors. Do
d. E and F
not explain how to find it; explain what it
represents.
12. Graphically add the following sets of
vectors shown.
4. How is the resultant displacement affected
when two displacement vectors are added
in a different order?

5. Explain the method you would use to

subtract two vectors graphically.

6. Explain the difference between A and A.

a. A, C, and D
7. The Pythagorean theorem usually is written b. A, B, and E
c2 = a2 + b2. If this relationship is used in c. B, D, and F
vector addition, what do a, b, and c
represent? 13. Ranking Task Rank the following
according to the magnitude of the net force,
8. When using a coordinate system, how is from least to greatest. Specifically indicate
the angle or direction of a vector any ties.
determined with respect to the axes of the
A. 20 N up + 10 N down
coordinate system?
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B. 20 N up + 10 N left
Mastering Problems C. 20 N up + 10 N up
9. Cars A car moves 65 km due east then D. 20 N up + 10 N 20° below the horizontal
45 km due west. What is its total E. 20 N up
displacement?
14. You walk 30 m south and 30 m east. Find
10. Find the horizontal and vertical components the magnitude and direction of the resultant
of the following vectors shown. displacement both graphically and
algebraically.

a. Ε b. Φ c. Α

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 Module 5 continued

15. Hiking A hiker’s trip consists of three 19. A Ship at Sea A ship at sea is due into a
segments. Path A is 8.0 km long heading port 500.0 km due south in two days.
60.0° north of east. Path B is 7.0 km long in However, a severe storm comes in and
a direction due east. Path C is 4.0 km long blows it 100.0 km due east from its original
heading 315° counterclockwise from east. position. How far is the ship from its
a. Graphically add the hiker’s destination? In what direction must it travel
displacements in the order A, B, C. to reach its destination?
b. Graphically add the hiker’s
20. Navigation Alfredo leaves camp and,
displacements in the order C, B, A.
using a compass, walks 4 km E, then
c. What can you conclude about the 6 km S, 3 km E, 5 km N, 10 km W, 8 km N,
resulting displacements? and, finally, 3 km S. At the end of two days,
he is planning his trip back. By drawing a
16. Two forces are acting on the ring. What is diagram, compute how far Alfredo is from
the net force acting on the ring? camp and which direction he should take to
get back to camp.

Lesson 2 Friction
Mastering Concepts
21. What is the meaning of a coefficient of
friction that is greater than 1.0? How would
you measure it?

17. Space Exploration A descent vehicle 22. Cars Using the model of friction described
landing on Mars has a vertical velocity in this textbook, would the friction between
toward the surface of Mars of 5.5 m/s. At a tire and the road be increased by a wide
the same time, it has a horizontal velocity of rather than a narrow tire? Explain.
3.5 m/s.
a. At what speed does the vehicle move Mastering Problems
along its descent path? 23. If you use a horizontal force of 30.0 N to
b. At what angle with the vertical is this slide a 12.0-kg wooden crate across a floor
path? at a constant velocity, what is the coefficient
of kinetic friction between the crate and the
c. If the vehicle is 230 m above the
floor?
surface, how long until it reaches the
surface? 24. A 225-kg crate is pushed horizontally with a
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force of 710 N. If the coefficient of friction is

18. Three forces are acting on the ring. What is
0.20, calculate the acceleration of the crate.
the net force act on the ring?
25. A force of 40.0 N accelerates a 5.0-kg
block at 6.0 m/s2 along a horizontal surface.
a. What would the block's acceleration be
if the surface was frictionless?
b. How large is the kinetic friction force?
c. What is the coefficient of kinetic friction?

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 Module 5 continued

26. Moving Appliances Your family just had a 33. You are asked to analyze the motion of a
new refrigerator delivered. The delivery book placed on a sloping table.
man has left and you realize that the a. Describe the best coordinate system for
refrigerator is not quite in the right position, analyzing the motion.
so you plan to move it several centimeters.
b. How are the components of the weight
If the refrigerator has a mass of 88 kg, the
of the book related to the angle of the
coefficient of kinetic friction between the
table?
bottom of the refrigerator and the floor is
0.13, and the static coefficient of friction
34. For a book on a sloping table, describe
between these same surfaces is 0.21, how
what happens to the component of the
hard do you have to push horizontally to
weight force parallel to the table and the
get the refrigerator to start moving?
force of friction on the book as you increase
the angle the table makes with the
27. Stopping at a Red Light You are driving a
horizontal.
1200.0-kg car at a constant speed of 14.0
m/s along a straight, level road. As you a. Which components of force(s) increase
approach an intersection, the traffic light when the angle increases?
turns red. You slam on the brakes. The car’s b. Which components of force(s) decrease?
wheels lock, the tires begin skidding, and
the car slides to a halt in a distance of 25.0 Mastering Problems
m. What is the coefficient of kinetic friction
35. An object in equilibrium has three forces
between your tires and the road?
exerted on it. A 33.0-N force acts at 90.0°
from the x-axis, and a 44.0-N force acts at
Section 3 Forces in Two 60.0° from the x-axis. Both angles are
Dimensions measured counterclockwise from the
positive x-axis. What are the magnitude and
Mastering Concepts the direction of the third force?
28. Describe a coordinate system that would
be suitable for dealing with a problem in 36. Five forces act on the object: (1) 60.0 N at
which a ball is thrown up into the air. 90.0°, (2) 40.0 N at 0.0°, (3) 80.0 N at
270.0°, (4) 40.0 N at 180.0°, and (5) 50.0 N
29. If a coordinate system is set up such that at 60.0°. What are the magnitude and the
the positive x-axis points in a direction 30° direction of a sixth force that would
above the horizontal, what should be the produce equilibrium?
angle between the x-axis and the y-axis?
What should be the direction of the positive
y-axis?
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30. Explain how you would set up a coordinate

system for motion on a hill.

31. If your textbook is in equilibrium, what can

you say about the forces acting on it?

32. Can an object that is in equilibrium be

moving? Explain.

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 Module 5 continued

37. Advertising Joe wishes to hang a sign 41. Two blocks are connected by a string over
weighing 7.50×102 N so that cable A, a frictionless, massless pulley such that one
attached to the store, makes a 30.0° angle, is resting on an inclined plane and the other
as shown in the image. Cable B is is hanging over the top edge of the plane.
horizontal and attached to an adjoining The hanging block has a mass of 16.0 kg,
building. What is the tension in cable B? and the one on the plane has a mass of 8.0
kg. The coefficient of kinetic friction
between the block and the inclined plane is
0.23. The blocks are released from rest.

38. A street lamp weighs 150 N. It is supported

by two wires that form an angle of 120.0°
with each other. The tensions in the wires
are equal.
a. What is the acceleration of the blocks?
a. What is the tension in each wire?
b. What is the tension in the string
b. If the angle between the wires connecting the blocks?
supporting the street lamp is reduced to
90.0°, what is the tension in each wire? 42. A block of mass M is pushed with a force (F)
such that the smaller block of mass m does
39. A 215-N box is placed on an incline that not slide down the front of it. There is no
makes a 35.0° angle with the horizontal. friction between the larger block and the
Find the component of the weight parallel surface below it, but the coefficient of static
to the incline. friction between the two blocks is µs. Find
an expression for F in terms of M, m, µs,
40. Emergency Room You are job-shadowing
and g.
a nurse in the emergency room of a local
hospital. An orderly wheels in a patient who
has been in a very serious accident and has
had severe bleeding. The nurse quickly
explains to you that in a case like this, the
patient’s bed will be tilted with the head
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downward to make sure the brain gets

enough blood. She tells you that, for most
patients, the largest angle that the bed can
be tilted without the patient beginning to
slide off is 45.0° from the horizontal.
Applying Concepts
43. A vector that is 1 cm long represents a
a. On what factor or factors does this angle
displacement of 5 km. How many
of tilting depend?
kilometers are represented by a 3-cm
b. Find the coefficient of static friction vector drawn to the same scale?
between a typical patient and the bed’s
sheets. 44. A vector drawn 15 mm long represents a
velocity of 30 m/s. How long should you
draw a vector to represent a velocity of
20 m/s?

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 Module 5 continued

45. What is the largest possible net 52. Tennis When stretching a tennis net
displacement resulting from two between two posts, it is relatively easy to
displacements with magnitudes 3 m and pull one end of the net hard enough to
4 m? What is the smallest possible remove most of the slack, but you need a
resultant? Draw sketches to demonstrate winch to take the last bit of slack out of the
your answers. net to make the top almost completely
horizontal. Why is this true?
46. How does the resultant displacement
change as the angle between two vectors 53. The weight of a book on an inclined plane
increases from 0° to 180°? can be resolved into two vector
components, one along the plane and the
47. A and B are two sides of a right triangle, other perpendicular to it.
where tan θ = A/B. a. At what angle are the components
a. Which side of the triangle is longer if equal?
tan  is greater than 1.0? b. At what angle is the parallel component
b. Which side is longer if tan θ is less equal to zero?
than 1.0? c. At what angle is the parallel component
c. What does it mean if tan θ is equal equal to the weight?
to 1.0?
54. TV Towers The transmitting tower of a
48. Traveling by Car A car has a velocity of 50 TV station is held upright by guy wires that
km/h in a direction 60° north of east. A extend from the ground to the top of the
coordinate system with the positive x-axis tower at an angle of 67° above the
pointing east and a positive y-axis pointing horizontal. The force along the guy wires
north is chosen. Which component of the can be resolved into perpendicular and
velocity vector is larger, x or y? parallel components with respect to the
ground. Which one is larger?
49. Under what conditions can the
Pythagorean theorem, rather than the law Mixed Review
of cosines, be used to find the magnitude of
55. The scale is being pulled on by three ropes.
a resultant vector?
What net force does the scale read?
50. A problem involves a car moving up a hill,
so a coordinate system is chosen with the
positive x-axis parallel to the surface of the
hill. The problem also involves a stone that
is dropped onto the car. Sketch the
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problem and show the components of the

velocity vector of the stone.

51. Pulling a Cart According to legend, a

horse learned Newton’s laws. When the
horse was told to pull a cart, it refused,
saying that if it pulled the cart forward,
according to Newton’s third law, there
would be an equal force backwards. Thus,
there would be balanced forces, and,
according to Newton’s second law, the cart
would not accelerate. How would you
reason with this horse?

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 Module 5 continued

56. Mythology Sisyphus was a character in

Greek mythology who was doomed in
Thinking Critically
Hades to push a boulder to the top of a 58. Use Models Using the Example Problems
steep mountain. When he reached the top, in this chapter as models, write an example
the boulder would slide back down the problem to solve the following problem.
mountain and he would have to start all Include the following sections: Analyze and
over again. Assume that Sisyphus slides the Sketch the Problem, Solve for the Unknown
boulder up the mountain without being able (with a complete strategy), and Evaluate the
to roll it, even though in most versions of Answer. A driver of a 975-kg car traveling
the myth, he rolled it. 25 m/s puts on the brakes. What is the
shortest distance it will take for the car to
a. If the coefficient of kinetic friction stop if the coefficient of kinetic friction is
between the boulder and the 0.65? Assume that the force of friction of
mountainside is 0.40, the mass of the the road on the tires is constant and the
boulder is 20.0 kg, and the slope of the tires do not slip.
mountain is a constant 30.0°, what is the
force that Sisyphus must exert on the 59. Analyze and Conclude Margaret Mary,
boulder to move it up the mountain at a Doug, and Kako are at a local amusement
constant velocity? park and see an attraction called the Giant
b. Sisyphus pushes the boulder at a Slide, which is simply a very long and high
velocity of 0.25 m/s and it takes him inclined plane. Visitors at the amusement
8.0 h to reach the top of the mountain, park climb a long flight of steps to the top of
what is the mythical mountain’s vertical the 27° inclined plane and are given canvas
height? sacks. They sit on the sacks and slide down
the 70-m-long plane. At the time when the
57. Landscaping A tree is being transported three friends walk past the slide, a 135-kg
on a flatbed trailer by a landscaper. If the man and a 20-kg boy are each at the top
base of the tree slides on the trailer, the preparing to slide down. “I wonder how
tree will fall over and be damaged. The much less time it will take the man to slide
coefficient of static friction between the tree down than it will take the boy,” says
and the trailer is 0.50. The truck's initial Margaret Mary. “I think the boy will take less
speed is 55 km/h. time,” says Doug. “You’re both wrong,” says
a. The truck must come to a stop at a traffic Kako. “They will reach the bottom at the
light without the tree sliding forward and same time.”
falling on the trailer. What is the a. Perform the appropriate analysis to
maximum possible acceleration the determine who is correct.
truck can experience? b. If the man and the boy do not take the
b. What is the truck's minimum stopping
Copyright ©McGraw-Hill Education

same amount of time to reach the

distance if the truck accelerates bottom of the slide, calculate how many
uniformly at the maximum acceleration seconds of difference there will be
calculated in part a? between the two times.

60. Problem Posing Complete this problem so

it can be solved using two-dimensional
vector addition: “Jeff is cleaning his room
when he finds his favorite basketball card
under his bed…”

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 Module 5 continued

61. Reverse Problem Write a physics problem

with real-life objects for which the vector
diagram would be part of the solution.

Writing in Physics
62. Investigate some of the techniques used in
industry to reduce the friction between
various parts of machines. Describe two or
three of these techniques and explain the
physics of how they work.

63. Olympics In recent years, many Olympic

athletes, such as sprinters, swimmers,
skiers, and speed skaters, have used
modified equipment to reduce the effects
of friction and air or water drag. Research a
piece of equipment used by one of these
types of athletes and the way it has
changed over the years. Explain how
physics has impacted these changes.
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Physics: Principles and Problems 7 Solutions Manual