Classical Physics I (Spring 2015)

Set your clicker to channel 21.

Do not use a smartphone or other messaging
devices in class. Please turn them off.

PHY 131
Lecture 5
Start Chapter 3

Vectors
Kinematics in Two or Three Dimensions

2/9/15 Lecture 5 1
 Are you here with your clicker set to channel 21?

1. Yes

170

s
Ye
2/9/15 Lecture 5 2
 Galileo’s Freefall Experiment
One of the “giants” upon
whose shoulders Newton
stood over a century later!

The rock drops faster, but

only because the feather is
affected by air resistance
much more than the rock is.

Galileo did such experiments and saw that air

resistance was important. His “leap forward”
was to imagine what would happen in the
idealized case of no air resistance. He
predicted that without air resistance, all
objects would fall at the same rate – what we
now call “acceleration”, viz., the acceleration
of gravity: g = 9.8 m/s2. Let’s demonstrate
that with a “high-tech” experiment!
•http://laughingsquid.com/a-feather-and-a-bowling-ball-dropped-together-inside-the-worlds-largest-vacuum-chamber/
•http://www.einstein-online.info/spotlights/equivalence_principle
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_general_relativity
2/9/15 Lecture 5 3
 20th Century Free-fall/rise Experiment: Photons (1960)

E = mc2 : energy and mass are

“equivalent”. For photons E=hf=
(Planck’s constant) x (frequency):
f is like E is like m. Photons
rising “against gravity” lose E.
It’s “as if” they lose mass.

http://physics.aps.org/IYL?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=winter-newsletter2015

This is the “old” physics building at Harvard University.

Pound and Rebka used a vertical tower but needed holes
cut through some floors to get a clear “line of sight”.

2/9/15 Lecture 5 4
 20th Century Freefall Experiment: Photons (1960, 1965)

Plotted data come from the improved, 1965 version of the

Harvard experiment by Pound and Snider. Experimental
values of 1 vertical unit (with ERROR BARS, OF COURSE!)
indicate agreement with the prediction from Einstein’s
theory of General Relativity (1915). Agreement is good!
This experiment confirmed the prediction. Later expts.
(including one at Stony Brook) have continued to confirm
it with higher and higher precision: ever smaller error bars.
2/9/15 Lecture 5 5
 21st Century Freefall Experiment: Quantum Matter Waves (2014)

Some “quantum gravity” theories predict that “free-fall” (gravitational acceleration) of

objects with mass may depend on their physical properties. The experiment above is the first
to use a “quantum matter wave interferometer” to compare the free-fall accelerations of
different atomic elements. The experimental results confirm “universality” of free fall to
1 part in 10 million. This may “constrain” different theoretical models for quantum gravity.
2/9/15 Lecture 5 6
 RE-CAP: 1d Motion with Constant Acceleration
• Sec. 2-5 of the text begins with the derivation of four “kinematic equations”
– Notation will now be simplified:
 Initial time will be represented by t0 = 0 (not t1) and elapsed time by t (not by t2 ).
 The “1d” coordinate can be called x or y or anything; we’ll use x as the example here.
 Initial position will be represented by x0 = 0 (not x1) and initial velocity by v0 = 0 (not by v1)
 At time t position and velocity will be called x and v (not x2 and v2)
 The average velocity during time interval (t ─t0) will be (because t0 = 0)

 The acceleration, which we take to be constant in time, will then be

• Study the derivations in Sec. 2-5. The results are these highlighted equations:

Warning: these four equations are NOT valid if a ≠ constant !!!

2/9/15 Lecture 5 7
 RE-CAP from Ask a Different Question from P1: P1’
v0 = +15 m/s (up)
y
a = –g = –9.80 m/s2
y0 = 44 m
y(t) = 0 m;
v (t)
t = ??
44 m

y
x

This is a plot of y (in m) vs. t (in s) for the above

equation. Note the parabolic shape because the
motion follows a quadratic equation in t. Also
note that the curve crosses y = 0 twice: viz.,
. For our problem P1’,
O Ot the motion before t = 0 “doesn’t exist”! But it
does exist “in the quadratic equation.” + 4.80 s
is the “physical value” that is correct for P1’.
2/9/15 Lecture 5 8
 Use the Previous Slide for a Different Purpose
y v0 = +15 m/s (up)
y
a = –g = –9.80 m/s2
y0 = 44 m
y(t) = 0 m;
v (t)
t = ??
44 m
O Ot
This is a plot of y (in m) vs. t (in s) for 1d physical x
motion: the ball going up and down. Note the
parabolic shape because the motion follows a
quadratic equation:
Question: Could a plot that looks just like this one represent 2d motion, i.e., y vs. x?
What would this mean? It would mean that x must be increasing linearly in time,
“just as time does”. What does that mean? That the x component of the ball’s velocity
must be constant: no acceleration in the x direction: PROJECTILE MOTION IN 2d.
Vectors are perfect for describing such motion. That’s why we study them NOW!
2/9/15 Lecture 5 9
 Vectors and Trigonometry: Tools That Go Together
• Vectors – from mathematics – play an important role in physics
– VECTOR: Must have both a magnitude and a direction (usually units, too)
– examples: displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, …
– SCALAR : non-directional quantities like distance, volume, mass, density, work,…

• To use vectors we need to specify a
y A=A vector A
“head”
reference system (axes for coordinates) or “tip”
– We start & develop the process graphically Ay
A

– Start out in “2d”: two dimensions (a plane)

 polar coordinates: A = (A,θ ) = θ
“toe” x
(length A, azimuthal angle θ ) or “tail” Ax
 rectilinear (Cartesian) coordinates: A = (Ax, Ay)
A in terms of unit vectors : =A A i + A j
x y

 Trigonometric relations to get “components”

Ax = Acosθ, Ay = Asinθ 
θ =arctan(Ay/Ax), A = (Ax2+Ay2)1/2 : Pythagorean Theorem

2/9/15 Lecture 5 10
 Some Properties of Vectors
A
• Inverse of a vector A: –A –A
– components of the inverse: –Ax, –Ay
C = A+ B = B +A

• Vector Addition: C = A+B

– Graphically: add vectors “tip-to-tail” B
• Useful properties of vectors to exploit A
– As long as its length and direction are kept the same, any vector
may be moved anywhere in the plane without changing it. In the figure just
above, the vector A is “slid” from touching the tail of B to touching its tip.
– Vector addition is commutative: the sum does not depend on which comes first
– Using rectilinear (Cartesian) coordinates to specify the “components”
 Cx = (A+B)x = Ax + Bx (components are scalars: their addition certainly “commutes”)
 Cy = (A+B)y = Ay + By (same as above)
– easily extended to adding more vectors: D = A+B+C+ …
 Subtraction = addition of inverse of vector: E= A – B = A + (–B)
– straightforward extension from 2d to 3d (harder to visualize 3d on a flat surface)
 Cartesian coordinates: add “z” axis; or use “spherical polar” or “cylindrical” coordinates or …
– 3d requires three components: more bookeeping than in 2d, which needs only two components
2/9/15 Lecture 5 11
 Add two vectors A + B to get C. C is maximum when
1. A and B are parallel
2. A and B are perpendicular
3. A and B are anti-parallel
4. Cannot be determined

125

61

12 6

ed
ar
le

le
l
al

al

in
cu
r

rm
di
pa

pa
en

te
t i-
e

de
ar

rp

an
pe
B

be
e
d

ar
e
an

t
ar

no
B
A

d
B

n
an

Ca
d
an

A
A

2/9/15 Lecture 5 12
 Add two vectors A + B to get C. C is minimum when
1. A and B are parallel
2. A and B are perpendicular
3. A and B are anti-parallel
4. Cannot be determined

196

12
1 1

ed
ar
le

le
l
al

al

in
cu
r

rm
di
pa

pa
en

te
t i-
e

de
ar

rp

an
pe
B

be
e
d

ar
e
an

t
ar

no
B
A

d
B

n
an

Ca
d
an

A
A

2/9/15 Lecture 5 13
 Good Pictorial Examples from the Text

2/9/15 Lecture 5 14
 More Good Pictorial Examples from the Text

2/9/15 Lecture 5 15
 What does the INCORRECT vector represent?
1. V1 + V2
2. V1 - V2
3. V2 - V1
4. V1 times V2
5. V1 divided by V2

97

45

16 15 17

2
V

-V

-V

V
+

es

by
V1

V2
V1

tim

ed
id
V1

v
di
V1
2/9/15 Lecture 5 16
 6 Methodical Steps for Adding Vectors (text p. 58)

2/9/15 Lecture 5 17
 6 Methodical Steps for Adding Vectors (text p. 58), continued

2/9/15 Lecture 5 18