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Newton's Law at Work

This document discusses Newton's laws of motion through examples involving a roller coaster, gravitational potential energy, and satellite orbits. It provides calculations to determine (1) the speed of a roller coaster at its lowest point given its mass and change in height, (2) the work done by friction based on the actual lower speed, (3) the gravitational potential and escape velocity from Earth, and (4) the height of a weather satellite orbit given its period.

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Anan Barghouthy
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59 views2 pages

Newton's Law at Work

This document discusses Newton's laws of motion through examples involving a roller coaster, gravitational potential energy, and satellite orbits. It provides calculations to determine (1) the speed of a roller coaster at its lowest point given its mass and change in height, (2) the work done by friction based on the actual lower speed, (3) the gravitational potential and escape velocity from Earth, and (4) the height of a weather satellite orbit given its period.

Uploaded by

Anan Barghouthy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 3

Newton’s Law at work

1. A roller coaster vehicle of mass 1200 kg drops by 50m from its highest point to its lowest
point.
a Calculate the change in the vehicle’s potential energy.
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b Show that the vehicle’s speed at the lowest point is 31 ms -1. (assume the speed at the
top is zero)
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c In fact the speed at the bottom is considerably less, only 25 ms -1. Calculate the work
done against frictional forces.
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d If the distance travelled between the highest and lowest points is 150 m , calculate the
average frictional force on the vehicle.
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[Total: 8]

1(2)
2. a Explain what is meant by the gravitational potential at a point.
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b The gravitational potential at the Earth’s surface is - 6.7 x 10 7 J kg-1


Explain why the value is negative.
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c Explain what is meant by “escape velocity”


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d Use the value given in (b) to calculate a value for the escape velocity from Earth.
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[Total: 8]

3. Weather satellites are often placed in circumpolar orbits, whereas satellites used for
broadcasting television channels are placed in geo-stationary orbits.
a Explain the terms in bold print and explain why these orbits are suitable for the
application given in the question.
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b Circumpolar weather satellites have a period of around 100 minutes.


Calculate the height of their orbit above Earth.
(HINT: Find the velocity in terms of the radius of the orbit and the period, then substitute
the expression into the equation v2 =GM/r)
Earth’s mass = 6 x 1024 kg
Earth radius = 6.4 x 106 m
G = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 kg-2
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[Total: 11]

2(2)

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