Q34 of 37 Page 25

A river is flowing due east with a speed 3m/s. A swimmer can swim in still water at a speed of 4 m/s (Fig. 4.8).

(a) If swimmer starts swimming due north, what will be his resultant velocity (magnitude and direction)?


(b) If he wants to start from point A on south bank and reach opposite point B on north bank,


(a) which direction should he swim?


(b) what will be his resultant speed?


(c) From two different cases as mentioned in (a) and (b) above, in which case will he reach opposite bank in shorter time?



Given:


Speed of the river = vr = 3m/s


Speed of the man = vm = 4m/s


(a)



The river flows East and the man swims north


So, resultant speed of the man,



Resultant direction of the man,




(b)



If the man wants to reach the opposite point on the bank, then the horizontal component of his resultant velocity must be zero.


So, vmx = -vr = -3m/s



Now, direction in which the man should swim can be found by,




(c) Time taken by man to swim can be found by,



In case a,



In case b,



Clearly, T1 < T2


So, the man will reach the opposite bank in shorter time in case a.


More from this chapter

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32

A particle falling vertically from a height hits a plane surface inclined to horizontal at an angle θ with speed vo and rebounds elastically (Fig 4.7). Find the distance along the plane where it will hit second time.


(Hint: (i) After rebound, particle still has speed Vo to start.


(ii) Work out angle particle speed has with horizontal after it rebounds.


(iii) Rest is similar to if particle is projected up the incline.)


33

A girl riding a bicycle with a speed of 5 m/s towards north direction, observes rain falling vertically down. If she increases her speed to 10 m/s, rain appears to meet her at 45° to the vertical. What is the speed of the rain? In what direction does rain fall as observed by a ground based observer?

(Hint: Assume north to be î direction and vertically downward to be − ĵ. Let the rain velocity vr be a î + b ĵ. The velocity of rain as observed by the girl is always vr – vgirl. Draw the vector diagram/s for the information given and find a and b. You may draw all vectors in the reference frame of ground based observer.)


35

A cricket fielder can throw the cricket ball with a speed vo. If he throws the ball while running with speed u at an angle θ to the horizontal, find

(a) the effective angle to the horizontal at which the ball is projected in air as seen by a spectator.


(b) what will be time of flight?


(c) what is the distance (horizontal range) from the point of projection at which the ball will land?


(d) find θ at which he should throw the ball that would maximise the horizontal range as found in (iii).


(e) how does θ for maximum range change if u >vo , u = vo , u < vo?


(f) how does θ in (v) compare with that for u = 0 (i.e.45o )?


36

Motion in two dimensions, in a plane can be studied by expressing position, velocity and acceleration as vectors in Cartesian co-ordinates A = Axî + Ayĵ where î and ĵ are unit vector along x and y directions, respectively and Ax and Ay are corresponding components of (Fig. 4.9). Motion can also be studied by expressing vectors in circular polar co-ordinates as A = Ar + Aɵ where = = cosθ î + sin θ ĵ and = sin θ î +cos θ ĵ are unit vectors along direction in which ‘r’ and ‘θ ’ are increasing.

(a) Express î and ĵ in terms of and .


(b) Show that both ř and θ are unit vectors and are perpendicular to each other.


(c) Show that (ř) = ω where and = −ωř


(d) For a particle moving along a spiral given by r= aθ , where a = 1 (unit), find dimensions of ‘a’.


(e) Find velocity and acceleration in polar vector representation for particle moving along spiral described in (d) above.