Modeling with Sinusoids

Exercise #1
As you ride a Ferris wheel, your distance from the ground varies sinusoidally with time. After each seat is
filled, the Ferris wheel starts, and you find that it takes you 3 seconds to reach the top, 43 feet above the ground,
and that the wheel makes a revolution once every 8 seconds. The diameter of the wheel is 40 feet.

Answer the following questions to write and graph a sinusoidal function to represent the situation

DON’T MAKE ASSSUMPTIONS: the problem says nothing about how high off the ground you are when
you get on. Do not assume you get on at the bottom of the wheel.

1) Let f(t) = your height off the ground. Find the minimum and maximum values for f.

2) What is the midline value for f?

3) What is the fundamental period for the wheel (how long does it take to complete one trip)? What is a quarter
period?

4) Let t = seconds since getting on the wheel. From the given info in the problem, what is one easy point to
plot? Plot this on the grid.

5) Use your plotted point and your answers to the given information to draw a graph of your height over time.
Fill in the given window.

6) Using cosine as a baseline function, write an equation for the graph

7) Using sine as a baseline function, write an equation for the graph

Exercise #2:
A weight attached to the end of a long spring is bouncing up and down. As it bounces, its distance from the
floor varies sinusoidally with time. You start a stopwatch. When the stopwatch reads 0.3 seconds, the weight
first reaches a high point 60 cm above the floor. The first low point, 40 cm above the floor, occurs at 1.5
seconds.

Guidance: what are some points you can plot on the graph just from the given information? How long does it
take the weight to go from max height to min height, and what portion of the period does this represent?

NOTE: It may not be easy to get your max, min, and mid points all on lattice points on the grid. It is more
important that you can find the value of quarter periods easily on the graph so that you can space the max, mid,
and min correctly.

a) Write an equation expressing distance from the floor in terms of the number of seconds the stopwatch
reads and sketch a graph of the sinusoid: IT IS UP TO YOU whether to graph then use the graph to
help you write the equation, or to do this step first and then graph using the equation.

b) Predict the distances from the floor when the stopwatch reads 11.1 seconds and 17.2 seconds.

c) What was the distance from the floor when you started the stopwatch?

d) Predict the first positive value of time at which the weight is 59 cm above the floor. (use your graphing
calculator – think about how you could use the intersect feature).
Exercise #3

3) Mark Twain sat on the deck of a river steamboat. As the paddlewheel turned, a point on the paddle blade
moved in such a way that its distance from the water’s surface was a sinusoidal function of time. When his
stopwatch read 4 seconds, the point was 7 feet above the water’s surface, heading into the water. The wheel’s
diameter was 18 feet, and it completed a revolution every 10 seconds. The point reached a max height of 16 feet
above the water.

a) Sketch a graph of the sinusoid and write its equation (again, order is up to you)

b) How far above the surface was the point when Mark’s stopwatch read
a. 5 seconds

b. 17 seconds

c) What is the first positive value of time at which the point was at the water’s surface? At that time, was it
going into or coming out of the water?
Exercise #4

4) Naturalists find that the populations of some kinds of predatory animals vary periodically. Assume that the
population of foxes in a certain forest varies sinusoidally with time. Records started being kept when time t = 0
years. A minimum number, 200 foxes occurred when t = 2.9 years. The next maximum, 800 foxes, occurred at
t = 5.1 years.

No one is saying you have to set up your scale using integer values. But you may not want to try and force
everything to be on lattice points. Again, if you have to pick, make your scale by thinking about the
period rather than the phase shift

a) Sketch a graph of this sinusoid and write an equation expressing the number of foxes as a function of
time, t.

b) Predict the population when t = 7.

c) Foxes are declared to be an endangered species when their population drops below 300. Between what
to nonnegative values of t were the foxes first endangered.