Catenaries on the computer: A freshman physics assignment

Charles L. Adler

Citation: The Physics Teacher 37, 254 (1999); doi: 10.1119/1.880255

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.880255
View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/pte/37/4
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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 N o t e

Catenaries on the Computer: A Freshman

Physics Assignment
Charles L. Adler, Department of Physics, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686;
cladler@osprey.smcm.edu

A few years ago, Eli Honig

showed that the shape of a
“balloon arch” (a string with
helium balloons attached at evenly
spaced intervals, anchored at both
ends to a support) is that of an invert-
ed catenary.1 I recently had a chance
to see this for myself, and to observe
that the balloon arch (and the cate-
nary) presents an ideal problem for
anyone who knows a little mechan-
ics.
On Valentine’s Day, our student
union was decorated with five or six
of these arches. After seeing this, I
marched my mechanics class over to
the hall, gave them an impromptu
lecture on the catenary, and assigned
them the task of figuring out the
shape of the balloon arch as an extra- Fig. 1. Ballon arch and the associated free-body diagram for the ith balloon. Tension in the two string
segments i and i + 1 must balance lift force on the string.
credit problem.
The problem is simple enough to
be given to any student who has taken These equations say that the lift Combining (3) and (4), we get:
introductory mechanics and has force must be balanced by the vertical (N–2 i)F
access to a computer. No knowledge component of the tension in the tan(␪i) = ᎏ ᎏ (5)
2TH
of the hyperbolic cosine (cosh) func- string, and that the horizontal compo-
tion or of differential equations is nent of the tension (labeled TH) is The position of balloon i can be
required. We begin by assuming that constant. Substituting (2) into (1), we found from:
there are N balloons evenly spaced on arrive at:
i–1

⌺ cos(␪ )
a massless string of total length L. F L
Each balloon has a lift force F acting tan (␪i+1) = tan(␪i) – ᎏ ᎏ (3) xi = ᎏᎏ j (6)
TH N+1 j=0
on it, pointing straight up (see Fig. 1).
At each attachment point i along the We now determine the boundary con-
i–1
ditions: the value of ␪ at the points
⌺ sin(␪ )
string, the lift force F must be bal-
L
anced by the tension Ti and Ti+1 in where the string is attached to the yi = ᎏᎏ j (7)
N+1 j=0
segments i and i+1. Resolving this ground (labeled by i = 0 and i = N+1).
into x (horizontal) and y (vertical) By symmetry, each attachment point Figure 2 shows the curve generat-
components, we have: must support half the lift force on the ed using 20 meters of string with 10
string. From this, and the fact that TH balloons attached to it, a lift force
T i sin( ␪i) – T i+1sin( ␪i+1 ) = F (1) is constant, we arrive at Eq. (4): F = 1 newton from each balloon, and
a horizontal tension TH = 1 newton.
NF
T i cos( ␪i) = T i+1 cos(␪ i+1) (=T H ) tan(␪0) = –tan(␪N+1) = ᎏ ᎏ (4) All students in freshman physics
2 TH should be able to follow the analysis
(2) given up to this point.

254 THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 37, April 1999 Catenaries on the Computer: A Freshman Physics Assignment
Fig. 2. Balloon arch generated from N = 10, F = 1 newton, L = 20 m and TH
= 1 newton.
The curve shown in Fig. 2 can be
generated on any programmable cal-
culator. However, the more inquisi-
tive students may wonder about the
shape of the arch when the number of
balloons gets very large—or, equiva-
lently, the shape taken by a hanging
cable or a bridge suspended only at
its endpoints. If they know the hyper-
bolic trig functions, they can be
shown the solution for the "true"
catenary, and can easily test that the
limiting shape of the balloon arch is a
hyperbolic cosine. For a derivation of
the results given below, I highly rec-
ommend Mechanics by J. P. Den
Hartog.2
In the limit of N very large, the
arch takes the shape of a catenary
given by2
T

   
f D
y = h – ᎏHᎏ cosh ᎏ ᎏ x – ᎏᎏ –1 (8)
f TH 2 (Dover, New York, 1961), pp.
where f is the lift force per unit length
 
NF
of the string f = ᎏᎏ , D the dis-
L
Catenaries on the Computer: A Freshman Physics Assignment
Fig. 3. Balloon arches generated using TH = 1 newton, L = 20 m, and f =
0.5 newton/meter. Shape of arch approaches a true catenary as N
increases.
tance between the string’s attachment
points, and h the height of the arch. D
can be found by integrating the length
of the curve from x = 0 to x = D, and
is given by the transcendental
equation:
  
T f D
L = 2 ᎏHᎏ sinh ᎏ ᎏ ᎏᎏ
f TH 2
while h is given by the expression:
(h + (TH/f))2 – (L/2)2 = (TH/f)2 (10)
which can be derived from the rela-
tion: cosh2(x) – sinh2(x) = 1.1 Figure
3 shows several arches generated
using different numbers of balloons
(N = 1, 5, and 10 balloons), while
keeping L and f fixed, and the cate-
nary generated using the same value
for L and f . 3 As can be seen, the
curves in Fig. 3 approach a true cate-
nary as N increases.
I gave this problem to my intro-
ductory mechanics class as an extra-
credit problem for those students who
had access to a computer. More than
a third of the class chose to do the
problem, most of whom solved it cor-
rectly. Discussion of the catenary
curve is usually held off until the
sophomore or junior year, when stu-
dents have the mathematical sophisti-
cation needed to handle the differen-
(9) tial equations. Access to computers
allows us to introduce our students to
topics such as this at a much earlier
stage.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Miron
Kaufman and Karl Casper for
reviewing the assignment that formed
the basis of this paper.
References
1. Eli Honig, Am. J. Phys. 59, 472
(1991).
2. J. P. Den Hartog, Mechanics
63–67.
3. In this case, L = 20 m and
f = 0.5 newton/meter.
Vol. 37, April 1999 THE PHYSICS TEACHER 255