PHY138Y - Mechanics - Class 11 - Wednesday October 19, 2005

Introduction

"Here arises a puzzle that has disturbed scientists of all periods. How is it possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently the objects of physical reality? Can human reason without experience discover by pure thinking properties of real things?"

-- Einstein

Announcements

Today's Class

We began today by jumping ahead, and doing a version of the proof on §11.2 that the total work equal the change in kinetic energy. Our version didn't explicitly use integrals.

We then went back to Chapter 10 and finished it.

Next we returned to Chapter 11, and finished it except for the last section on Power. We will finish Chapter 11 next class and then begin Chapter 13.

Section 10.6

We discussed a two dimensional elastic collision between 2 objects of equal mass where initially one mass was moving and the other was stationary. Then, in the absence of spin, I proved that after the collision the angle between the 2 velocity vectors is /2 radians, or 90 degrees.

Examples of such collisions are in playing billiards or in curling.

The figure illustrates for a game of pool in which the player is trying to sink the 8 ball into the right-hand pocket. If from the point of collision the angle between the path to the right-hand pocket and the path to the left-hand pocket is 90 degrees, then if the 8 ball goes into the right-hand pocket the cue ball will go into the left-hand one. This is a "scratch" and causes the player to lose the game.

Good players learn how to put spin on the cue ball to avoid the scratch. Beginning players should avoid trying to make such a shot.

Flash Animations

We showed this Flash animation about Hooke's Law for springs. Flash animation of Hooke's Law
We also showed this animation about the dot product of two vectors Dot product animation

Class Materials

Pdf version of the PowerPoint on the side screens. Theory of Intelligent Falling
Today's Journal. Theory of Intelligent Falling

Suggested Problems

previous class The arrows let you jump to the previous/next class summaries. next class