THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES

PH 110 INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS

1. The value of g at the surface of the Earth is 9.8 N/kg and on the surface of Venus the magnitude of g
is 8.6N/kg. A cosmonaut has a weight of 588 N on the surface of the Earth, what will be her mass
and weight on the surface of Venus?

2. A car is moving along a level road at a speed of 72 km/h. Find the shortest distance in which the car
can be stopped by switching off the engine. Coefficient of kinetic friction between the road and the
tyres is 0.4.

6. A warehouse worker pushes a crate along the floor. She does so by a force of 10N that points
downward at an angle of 45º below the horizontal. Find the horizontal and vertical components of
the force.

7. Two students pull horizontally on ropes attached to a post; the angle between the ropes is 60º . If
Chanda exerts a force of 270N and Twaambo exerts a force of 300N , find the magnitude of the
resultant force and the angle he makes with Chanda’s rope.

8. A hockey puck with mass 0.16kg is at rest at the origin on the horizontal, frictionless surface of the
rink. At time of origin, a player applies a force of 0.25N to the puck, parallel to the x-axis ; he
continues to apply this force until t=2s
a) What are the position and speed of the puck at 2s
b) If the same force is again applied at 5s , what are the position and speed of the puck at 7s

3. A hotel guest starts to pull an armchair across a horizontal floor by exerting a force of 91N at
15°above the horizontal. The normal force exerted by the floor on the chair is 221 N up. The
acceleration of the chair is 0.076 m/s2. Determine the mass of the chair and the coefficient of kinetic
fiction between the chair and the floor.

4. A light string ABCDE whose extremity A is fixed, has weights W 1 and W1 attached to it at B and C
as shown in Figure 1. It passes round a small smooth pulley at D carrying a weight of 300 N at the
free end E as shown in the figure below. The system is in equilibrium. BC is horizontal and AB and
CD make 150° and 120° with BC, Find the tensions in the portion AB, BC and CD of the string, and
the magnitudes of W1 and W2.

1
 Figure 1

5 (i) State Newton’s three laws of motion.

370
m =2 kg

Figure 2

9. An elevator and its load have a total mass of 800 kg. Find the tension T in the supporting cable
when the elevator, originally moving downward at 10 m/s, is brought to rest with constant
acceleration in a distance of 25 m.

10. A block of mass m1 = 3.70 kg on a frictionless inclined plane of angle Ɵ = 300 is connected by a cord
over a massless, frictionless pulley to a second block of mass m2 = 2.30 kg hanging vertically, as
shown in Figure 3. What are (a) the magnitude of the acceleration of each block and (b) the direction
of the acceleration of m2? (c) What is the tension in the cord?

Figure 3

11. A 10 kg box is attached to a 7 kg box which rests on a 30o incline as shown in Figure 4. The
coefficient of kinetic friction between each box and the surface is μ k = 0.1.

2
 10 kg

7 kg

30º

Figure 4

With the aid of a diagram showing forces acting on the boxes, calculate:
a) the frictional force for the 10 kg box,
b) the frictional force for the 7 kg box,
c) the acceleration of the system and
d) the tension in the rope.

12. Figure 5, shows two blocks connected by a cord passing over a small frictionless pulley rest on
frictionless planes.

Figure 5

a) Which way does the system go when the blocks move when the blocks are released from rest?
b) What is the acceleration of the blocks?
c) What is the tension in the cord?

13. Two boxes with masses 4.00kg and 8.00kg are connected by a string and slide down a 30o
inclined plane presented in Figure 6:

Figure 6

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 The coefficient of kinetic friction between the 4.00kg box and the inclined plane surface is 0.25
while that of between the 8.00kg box and the inclined plane surface is 0.35.
a) Calculate the acceleration of each box and the tension in the string.
b) What happens if the position of the boxes is reversed?

14. A uniform ladder denoted in Figure 7 is 5.0m long and weighs 400N. The ladder rests against a
slipping vertical wall as shown below. The inclination angle between the ladder and the rough floor
is 53o. Find the reaction forces from the floor and from the wall on the ladder and the static friction
coefficient at the interface of the ladder with the floor that prevents the ladder from slipping.

Figure 7

15. A forward horizontal force of 12N is used to pull a 240-N crate at constant velocity across a
horizontal floor. Determine the coefficient of friction.

16. A speedboat with mass 3.50 x 102kg, including the passenger, has an engine that produces a net
horizontal force of 7.70 x 102 N, after accounting for forces of resistance.
i. Find the acceleration of the speedboat.
ii. Starting from rest, how long does it take the airboat to reach a speed of 12.0 m/s?

17. Given that m1 = 50kg and m2= 64kg (Figure 8). Find the accelerations of the masses and the tension
in the String.

Figure 8

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18. The system in Figure 9 is in equilibrium with the strings in the centre exactly horizontal. Find (a)
tensions T1 , T2 , T3 and (b) angle  ,

Figure 9

19. A 6.0 m uniform ladder of weight 200 N stands against a wall at an angle of 53 o above the
horizontal. There is no friction between the ladder and the wall but the coefficient of static
friction between the ladder and the floor is 0.55. An electrician weighing 600 N slowly climbs
the ladder to fix a light bulb. What is the maximum distance he can climb, measured up the
ladder from its base, before the ladder will fall?

20. The system in Figure 10 is in Equilibrium. A mass of 225 kg hangs from the end of the uniform
strut whose mass is 45 kg. Find (a) the tension T in the cable and (b) the horizontal and vertical
components exerted on the strut by the hinge.

Figure 10
21. Consider the situation shown in Figure 11. Calculate the tension in the tie rope and the size of the
forces acting through the point P. The uniform beam is hinged at P and has a weight of 600 N.

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 Figure 11

22. For the figure shown in Figure 12, find the values of W2 and W3 if the system is in equilibrium,
given that W1 =800 N.

Figure 12