Name and ID#:__________________________________________________________________

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA

College of Science and Engineering
ENGS 121 Mechanics
QUIZ 10
Date / Time: Friday, April 06 at 08:30
Duration: 50 mins
Attention: ANY TYPE OF COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED
Problem 1: Consider a toy car on a frictionless table. Its mass is the second digit of your ID#. It is initially
at rest. A ball rolls down from its top and leaves the car with velocity v = 1 m/s. The mass of the ball is the
sum of the last four non-zero digits of your ID#. Find car’s velocity after the ball leaves it.

Solution v
u
Let’s assume the second digit is 9 and the last four non-zero digits are
1, 2, 3 and 4  car’s mass M = 9 (kg) and ball’s mass m = 10 (kg)
Initially, the system is at rest  Pbefore = 0
Pafter = Mu – mv
No horizontal forces  P = Pafter – Pbefore = Mu – mv = 0 
𝑚 10
𝑢= 𝑣= (𝑚/𝑠)
𝑀 9

Problem 2: Consider the same car from Problem 1. This time four smaller balls are rolling down its top.
The masses of the ball are the last four non-zero digits of your ID#. The balls leave the car with relative
velocity v = 1 m/s in the increasing order of their masses. Find car’s velocity after the last ball leaves it.
Hint: if the car moves with velocity u to the right and a ball moves relative to it with velocity v to the left,
then ball’s velocity relative to the table is u – v.
Solution

The first incident is identical to the one from Problem 1 

𝑚1 1
𝑢1 = 𝑣= (𝑚/𝑠)
𝑀 + 𝑚2 + 𝑚3 + 𝑚4 18
Here, u1 is the velocity of the car with the remaining three balls after the first one leaves.

Let’s assume the second incident starts from rest as well 

𝑚2 2
𝑢2 = 𝑣= (𝑚/𝑠)
𝑀 + 𝑚3 + 𝑚4 16
If the car gains velocity u2 starting from rest, then, moving initially with u1, it will reach the velocity u1 + u2

Let’s again assume the third incident starts from rest 

𝑚3 3
𝑢3 = 𝑣= (𝑚/𝑠)
𝑀 + 𝑚4 13
Having initially the velocity u1 + u2, the car moves after the incident with the velocity u1 + u2 + u3.

Similarly, from the last incident:

𝑚4 4
𝑢4 = 𝑣 = (𝑚/𝑠)
𝑀 9
The final velocity of the car is
89 10
𝑢 = 𝑢1 + 𝑢2 + 𝑢3 + 𝑢4 = (𝑚/𝑠) < (𝑚/𝑠)
104 9

Use the backside, if needed Page 1 of 2

Name and ID#:__________________________________________________________________

Problem 3: A raindrop of initial mass m0 starts falling from rest under the combined influence of gravity
and air resistance. Its mass is increasing at a rate
𝑑𝑚
= 𝛽𝑚𝑣,
𝑑𝑡
and the air resistance force is
Fair = -m v.
Here v is its instantaneous velocity and  and  are a constants.
Write the momentum of the drop at the moment before gaining the increment dm and at the moment
immediately after that, and find the velocity, at which drop’s acceleration becomes 0.

Solution

The incident: gaining the increment dm during an infinitely short period dt of vertical fall.
Py before = mv
Py after = (m + dm)(v + dv) = mv + mdv + vdm
The sum of the vertically acting forces Fy = mg – m v  dPy = Fydt

dPy = Py after – Py before = mv + mdv + vdm – mv = mdv + vdm = Fydt = mgdt – m vdt 
𝑑𝑣 𝑑𝑚 𝑑𝑣 𝑑𝑣
𝑚 +𝑣 = 𝑚𝑔 − 𝛾𝑚𝑣 ⇒ 𝑚 + 𝛽𝑚𝑣 2 = 𝑚𝑔 − 𝛾𝑚𝑣 ⇒ + 𝛽𝑣 2 = 𝑔 − 𝛾𝑣
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑣
= 0 ⇒ 𝛽𝑣 2 + 𝛾𝑣 − 𝑔 = 0 ⇒
𝑑𝑡
−𝛾 + √𝛾 2 + 4𝛽𝑔
𝑣=
2𝛽

Use the backside, if needed Page 2 of 2