1

Problem 13
Let m1 denote the magnetic moment of the fixed dipole. Let m2 denote the mag-
netic moment of the dipole that will move. Let r be the vector that points from m1
to m2 . Then the force between the two dipoles is given by
30 h 5.m1
r/.m2
r/ i
FD .m1
r/m2 C .m2
r/m1 C .m1
m2 /r r (1)
4 r 5 r2
which I found on Wikipedia.
Let the magnitude of each magnetic moment be m. In the first configuration (a),
the following relations are true: m1
r D 0; m2
r D 0; m1
m2 D m2 . Thus,

30 m2
FD r: (2)
4 r 5
In the second configuration (b), the following relations are true: m1
r D mr,
m2
r D mr, m1
m2 D m2 , and we will also define rO as the unit vector pointing in
the r direction. We will find that
30 m2
FD r: (3)
2 r 5
(2) and (3) are very similar, so we should be able to compute the elapsed times
in very similar ways. First, let the mass of the dipole be w: Then define, for ease of
notation,
30 m2
 :
4w
(2) becomes:
rR D r 4 : (4)
We use the trick a dx D v dv to write:
Z rP Z r
0 0
rP drP D rR dr 0
0 r
Z 0r
D r 0 4 dr 0
r
0 r
1 3
D r ;
3 r0

which implies that

  1=2
2 1 1
rP D ; (5)
3 r3 r03
 2

where we have taken the negative value because we know that r is decreasing. This
is a separable differential equation that allows us to write:
r0    1=2
2 1 1
Z
tD dr
0 3 r3 r03
1=2 Z r0
r 3=2

3
D dr: (6)
2 0 Œ1 .r=r0 /3 1=2
(6) is rather difficult to integrate. I used Mathematica. The answer was
 1=2
3 €.5=6/ 1=2 5=2
tD  r0
2 €.1=3/
1=2
2 2 w

€.5=6/ 5=2
D r : (7)
0 m2 €.1=3/ 0
In part (b), the answer is similar, except ! 2 . This yields
1=2
 2w

€.5=6/ 5=2
tD r : (8)
0 m2 €.1=3/ 0
Contestant: Jacob H. Nie