PHY 3221 : Intermediate Me

hani s, Spring 2002

January 11th, 2002
Assignment # 1
(due Friday January 18th, 2002, at the beginning of lass)

1. Problem 1.9 of Marion and Thornton's book.

2. Consider a ube whose edges are ea h of unit length. One orner oin ides with the origin
of an Oxyz Cartesian oordinate system. Three of the ube's edges extend from the origin
along the positive dire tion of ea h oordinate axis. Find the ve tor that begins at the origin
and extends:
(a) along a major diagonal of the ube;
(b) along the diagonal of the lower fa e of the ube.
( ) Calling these ve tors A and B, nd C=AB.
(d) Find the angle between A and B.
3. The motion of a proje tile is des ribed by the following equation
!
gt2
r(t) = i bt + j t +k0
2
(a) In spite of the three dimensional notation, this a planar motion (in the (x; y ) plane).
Can you see why?
(b) Cal ulate v(t) and a(t).
( ) Des ribe the motion in the x-dire tion. What is b?
(d) Des ribe the motion in the y -dire tion. What is ? What is g ?
4. A buzzing y moves in a heli al path given by the equation
r(t) = i b sin(!t) + j b os(!t) + k t2
(a) Show that the magnitude of the a eleration of the y is onstant, provided b, and
are onstant.
!
(b) Can you gure out and des ribe what the traje tory of the y looks like?
( ) Che k your intuition with Maple, using the spa e urve ommand. Take b = =1 and
! =2 and try:
> with(plots);
> b:=1; :=1; omega:=2;
>spa e urve([b*sin(omega*t),b* os(omega*t), *t^2℄,t=0..4*Pi,numpoints=100);

1
5. Read and pra ti e yourMaple tutorial. Then try the following ommands of Maple and
explain what's wrong with them (read and pra ti e the rst tutorial!) Corre t them
and write down the answers you get.
(a) tan(pi/4);
(b) Evalf(Pi);
( ) plot(sin(a*t),t=0..2*Pi);
6. For graduates (bonus for undergraduates)
Show that:
X
3

ijk lmk = Æil Æjm Æim Æjl

k=1
and evaluate the sum in the ase in whi h: (i) i = j or l = m, (ii) i = l and j = m,
(iii) i = m and j = l. Use this result to prove that:
A  (B  C ) = (A
C ) B (A
B ) C
7. For graduates (bonus for undergraduates)
Show that:
( a) rr = rr = er
1 r 1
(b) r r
=
r 3
r2
= er
where r is the magnitude of the position ve tor r=xi + yj + z k
and er is the unit ve tor
in the dire tion of r.
Loading the plots pa kage in Maple, plot the previous two gradients in D=2 (dimensions)
using the fun tion gradplot and in D=3 (dimensions) using the fun tion gradplot3d. A
gradient plot is a pi torial way to represent a gradient fun tion (like the ones you have in (a)

and (b) above. Sin e a gradient fun tion is a ve tor fun tion, it asso iates a ve tor to ea h
point in spa e. A gradient plot will pi k a sample of points in the region of spa e you want
and draw an arrow for ea h of them, dire ted as and proportional to the ve tor fun tion in
that point.
I suggest you use the following options to get readable plots:
(i) For the D=2 ase:
gradplot((x2 + y 2 )(1=2) ; x = 1::1; y = 1::1; grid = [10; 10℄);
(i) For the D=3 ase:
gradplot3d((x2 + y 2 + z 2 )(1=2) ; x = 1::1; y = 1::1; z = 1::1; grid = [5; 5; 5℄);
Note that the ranges for (x; y; z ) an be hanged as you like. If you then li k on your plot,
more optional ommands will appear in the top bar of your window. Use them to move the
oordinate axes as you like.
Print out your result and explain what do you understand from these plots. Do you see any
dieren e between them? For instan e:
i) Are the arrows dire ted the same way in ase (a) and (b)? Why?
ii) Are the length of the arrows always the same in ea h plot? If yes, why? If no, why?