THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

PH 110 INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS

TUTORIALSHEET 3: Kinematics_2023/2024

1. A toy boat moves horizontally in a pond. The displacement–time graph of the

boat is shown in Figure 1. Find the average velocity and the average speed
in the time intervals:
(a) 0 to 8 s
(b) 0 to 12 s
(c) 8 s to 16 s
(d) 0 to 24 s
(e) 12 to 24 s

Figure 1

2. Two trains, one travelling at 72 km/h and the other one at 144 km/h, are
headed toward one another along a straight level track. When they are 950 m
apart, each engineer sees the other’s train and applies breaks. If the breaks
decelerate each train at the rate of 1m/s 2, is there a collision?

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3. A car travels 1 km between two stops. It starts from rest and accelerates at 2.5
m/s2 until it attains a velocity of 12.5 m/s. The car continues at this velocity
for some time and decelerates at 3 m/s2 until it stops. Calculate the total time
for the journey.

4. A motorcycle policewoman hidden at an intersection observes a car that

ignores a stop sign, crosses the intersection, and continues on at constant
speed of 72 km/h. 2 seconds after the car crosses the intersection, the
policewoman starts off in pursuit, accelerating uniformly at 3 m/s 2 until she
catches the car.
(a) How long does it take the motorcycle to catch up with the car?
(b) How far will the car move when this happens?

5. Two parallel rail tracks run north-south. Train A moves north with a speed of
54 km/h and train B moves south with a speed of 90 km/h. What is the
relative velocity in m/s of
(a) B with respect to A
(b) the ground with respect to B
(c) a monkey running on the roof of train A against its motion (with velocity
18 km/h with respect to A) as observed by a man standing on the
ground.
6. A ball is thrown upward and reaches height of 4 meters. Find the initial speed
and time taken by ball to come to the thrower (g=10).
7. A Bullet is fired from a rifle with a velocity 750m/s. If length of rifle barrel is
50cm, calculate average velocity of the bullet, while being accelerate in barrel.
Find the time taken by the bullet to travel.
8. A projectile is fired from the top of a cliff of height above the ocean below. If it
was fired at an angle above the horizontal with an initial speed .
i) Find a symbolic expression in term of the variables , and for the
time at which the projectile reaches its maximum height.
ii) Using the result in part (i), find an expression for the maximum height
above the ocean attained by the projectile in terms of and .

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 9. Acceleration-time graph of a particle moving in a straight line is as shown in
Figure 2 At time velocity of the particle is zero. Find the average
acceleration in a time interval from to .

10. A projectile is fired with an initial speed of 113 m/s at an angle of 60 o above
the horizontal from the top of a cliff 49 m high.

Find:
(a) the time to reach the maximum height,
(b) the maximum height,
(c) the total time in the air,
(d) the horizontal range and
(e) the components of the final velocity just before the projectile hits the
ground.

11. Two stones are dropped from the edge of a 60m cliff, the second stone 1.6s
after the first. How far below the top of the cliff is the second stone when the
separation between the two stones is 36m?

12. Just as a car starts to accelerate from rest at a constant acceleration of

2.44m/s2, a bus moving at a constant speed of 19.6m/s passes the car in a
parallel lane.
a) How long does it take the car to overtake the bus?
b) How fast is the car moving?
c) How far has the car gone at that point?

13. A ball thrown from the top of a 50m tall building is given an initial velocity of
20m/s straight upwards. The ball just misses the edge of the roof on its way
down.
a) Determine the time at which the ball reaches its maximum height.
b) Determine the maximum height.
c) The time at which the ball returns to the height from which it was thrown.
d) The velocity of the ball at this instant.

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 e) The velocity and position of the ball at t = 5s.

14. A stone is released from a hot- air balloon which is rising steadily at 4m/s.
Find the velocity of the stone after 3 s of release.

15. A stone is dropped by a person from the top of a building, which is 200 m
tall. At the same time, another stone is thrown upwards, with a velocity of 50
m/s by a person standing at the foot of the building. Find the time after
which the two stones meet.

16. Show that time of ascent of an object thrown vertically upwards is equal the
time of its descent.

17. A bullet is fired from the ground vertically upwards with an initial velocity of
100 m/s.
(i) Find the total time of flight.
(ii) Find the total distance covered by the bullet.
(iii) What is the bullet’s velocity on the ground?
(iv) What are the assumptions made in these calculations?

18. An Alaskan rescue plane drops a package of emergency rations to stranded

hikers, as shown in the Figure below. The plane is traveling horizontally at
40.0 m/s at a height of 1.0x 102 m above the ground. Neglect air resistance.

a) Where does the package strike the ground relative to the point at which it
was released?
b) What are the horizontal and vertical components of the velocity of the
package just before it hits the ground?
c) What is the angle of the impact?

19. A ball of mass 200 g covers a maximum vertical distance of 10 m when it is

kicked at an angle of 30° from the horizontal ground.
(a) How long will the ball be in the air?
(b) How far from the point of projection will the ball land?

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20. If the golf ball is hit in the direction of a 12-meter tree which is 80 meters
from the golfer, will the ball pass over the tree or hit it? See the figure below
(Not drawn to scale)

21. A particle starts from rest and accelerates as shown in the figure below.
(a) Find the particle’s speed at t = 10 s and at t = 20 s.
(b) Draw the velocity-time graph for a particle in the interval from t=0 to t=20s.
(c) Determine the distance traveled in the first 20 seconds.