Physics 160, Winter 2024 – Practice Quiz 3

The actual quiz takes place in class on Monday, March 11, 2024

Your name: ________________________________________________________

Your uniqname: ________________________________________________

Fill in your name and uniqname in the spaces above.

All cell phones, text messaging devices, computers, and communication devices of any type must be
turned off and stowed out of sight.
The quiz is closed book. You may use three 3" × 5" (7.5 cm × 12.5 cm) notecards (both sides). You
may also use a calculator that cannot communicate with the outside world.
You cannot share calculators, notecards, scratch paper, or quiz booklets. Quiz responses must be
based on your individual work only.
The quiz is 50 minutes long. There are 10 questions (a combination of multiple-choice and fill in the
answer). All questions are of equal value. There is no penalty for guessing.
You must circle the correct answer or write the correct answer on the line provided to get credit for
each problem. There is no partial credit for multiple-choice questions.
At the end of the quiz, hand in this quiz booklet.
Constants and equations you may find useful:

g = 9.8 m/s2
G = 6.67 × 10-11 N·m2/kg2
REarth = 6.38 × 106 m
MEarth = 5.97 × 1024 kg
x = x0 + v0xt + axt2/2
vx = v0x + axt
vx2 = v0x2 + 2ax(x – x0)
v = Rω
atan = dv/dt = Rα
arad = v2/R = ω2R
Fair = CdAρv2/2
Fspr,x = – k(x – x0)
Fgrav = Gm1m2/r2

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1. At a particular moment in time, a
small asteroid of mass m happens to be M m 2M
in between two large stars with masses
M and 2M. The center of the asteroid is
r 2r
a distance r from the center of the star of
mass M and a distance 2r from the center of the star of mass 2M, as shown. There are no other
astronomical objects nearby. What is the magnitude of the overall gravitational force experienced by
the asteroid?

Answer ___________________

2. Consider a hollow spherical planet. At a distance less than a from the center the planet is hollow.
Between a radius a and b the planet is solid with a uniform density. Which of the following statements
are correct?

a
b

1. The gravitational force on an object at any point inside the cavity is zero.
2. The gravitational force on an object inside the grey volume (between radii a and b) increases
linearly with the distance to the center of the planet.
3. If one drills a tiny hole along the diameter of this planet and drops a mass with no initial velocity,
that object will perform harmonic oscillations around the center of the planet with amplitude equal to
the radius of the planet b.
4. If one drills a tiny hole along the diameter of this planet and drops a mass with no initial velocity,
the velocity of the object will continuously increase as it moves from the surface of the planet to its
center.
5. If one drills a tiny hole along the diameter of this planet and drops a mass with no initial velocity,
the time for the object to travel to a point on the opposite side of the planet will be equal to the time a
similar trip would take a similar object launched in a circular orbit with the radius barely greater than
the radius of the planet b.

a) Statement 1 only
b) Statements 1 and 2 only
c) Statements 1 and 3 only
d) Statements 1 and 4 only
e) Statements 1 and 5 only

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3. An astronaut of mass 70 kg is standing on a bathroom scale at the equator of a planet, which has the
Earth’s radius (see the first page for the radius), but rotates around its axis with a period of 3 hours.
The scale reads 700 N. What is the value of g on the surface of this planet? Ignore the planet’s motion
around its star.

Answer ___________________

4. Imagine someone managed to drill a hole along an Earth’s diameter (for example, from North Pole
to South Pole) and lowered an object there, so that it is half the Earth’s radius away from the Earth’s
center. If the weight of the object on the surface of the Earth is w, what would its weight be at this
location? Ignore Earth’s rotation and assume that Earth has uniform density.

Answer ___________________

5. An object is moving clockwise around a hyperbola-shaped

trajectory, as shown. The total force acting on the object is always at
right angles to the trajectory. (It does not matter how exactly this
orientation of the total force is achieved at all times; this is beyond the
scope of this problem.) Which statement best describes the motion of
the object over the arc 1 → 2 → 3?

a) The object moves with a decreasing speed

b) The object moves with a constant speed
c) The object moves with an increasing speed
d) The object moves with constant velocity
e) The object moves with a constant acceleration

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6. Four equal masses are arranged in a perfect square formation, as
shown. There are no other bodies nearby. Mass 1 exerts a
gravitational force of magnitude F on mass 2. What is the
magnitude of the total gravitational force exerted on mass 2 in this
arrangement?

Answer ___________________

7. A thin uniform rod of mass M and length L gravitationally interacts with a point mass m that is a
distance a away from its left end along a line perpendicular to the rod (see the figure). What is the
component of the gravitational force the rod exerts on the point mass perpendicular to the rod?

a) zero
L
GmM dx
b) –
L ò (x
0
2
+ a2 )
1/ 2

L
GmM dx
c) –
L òx
0
2
+ a2
L
GmMa dx
d) – ò
L 0 x + a2
2
( )
3/ 2

L
GmM xdx
e) –
L ò (x
0
2
+ a2 )
3/ 2

8. A ball of mass m is attached to a string and twirled in a vertical circle of radius R. The speed of the
ball is very slowly increased until the string breaks. It is observed that the speed of the ball is
approximately equal to !3𝑔𝑅 when the string breaks. What is the maximum tension the string can
sustain?

a) mg
b) 2mg
c) 3mg
d) 4mg
e) 5mg

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9. A particle is moving in a circle of radius R = 3 m. The origin of a coordinate system is at the center
of the circle. The motion is not uniform, and the angle between the particle’s position vector and one
of the coordinate axes increases with time according to 𝜃(𝑡) = 𝛽𝑡 ! , where β = 2 rad/s2. What is the
magnitude of the particle’s linear acceleration at t = 0.43 s?

Answer ___________________

10. Suppose we want to put a satellite into an areosynchronous orbit, i.e. a circular orbit in the Mars’s
equatorial plane such that the satellite always “hangs” over the same spot on the Mars’s surface. What
is the radius of such an areosynchronous orbit? The mass of Mars is MMars = 6.42 × 1023 kg, its radius
is RMars = 3.40 × 106 m, and the Martian day is approximately equal to the day on Earth.

Answer ___________________

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