siddhartha

GROUP OF IITians & PROFS.

Prepared by P.K.Siddhartha B.Tech IIT ROORKEE

Kinematics
Conceptual Question :
1.

What is meant by

5.

(a) If a particles position is given by x = 4

12t + 3t2 (where t is in seconds and x is in
meters), what is its velocity at t = 1 s?
(b) Is it moving toward increasing or
decreasing x just then?
(a) What is its speed just then?
(b) Is the speed larger or smaller at later
times? (Try answering the next two
questions without further calculation.)
(c) Is there ever an instant when the velocity
is zero?
(d) Is there a time after t = 3s when the
particle is moving leftward on the x-axis?

6.

A man standing on the edge is a cliff throws a

stone straight up with initial speed u and then
throws another stone straight down with same
initial speed u and from the same position.
Find the ratio of the speeds, the stones would
have attained when they hit the ground at the
base of the cliff.

7.

A body dropped from a height h at time t = 0

reaches the ground at time t0. It would have
reached a height h/2 at time t = ____________.

8.

A body is thrown vertically up from the

ground with a speed u and it reaches its
maximum height h at time t = t0. The height to
which it would have risen at t = t0/2 is
_______________.

9.

Four persons K, L, M, N are initially at the

four corners of a square of side d. Each person
now moves with a uniform speed v in such a
way that K always moves directly towards L, L
directly towards M, M directly towards N and
N directly towards K. The four persons will
meet at a time _____________.

dv
d |v |
and
? Can
dt
dt

these be equal? Can

d |v |
= 0 while
dt
d |v |
(ii)
0 while
dt

(i)

dv
0
dt
dv
=0
dt

2.

Two balls of different masses m1 and m2 are

dropped from two different heights h1 and h2
respectively. The ratio of time taken by the two
balls to drop through these distances is
______________.

3.

Identify carefully and state with reasons, which

of the following graphs cannot possibly
represent one-dimensional motion of a particle.
V

4.

For the velocity-time graph shown in the fig.

(i) The initial velocity of the particle is
________________.
(ii) The acceleration of the particle is
________________.
(iii) If the particle starts from the origin, the
displacement of the particle at t = 2s is
________________.

ms 1 V
10

True False
State whether the statement is true or false.

1.

t(s)

When a particle is in motion, its acceleration

may be in any direction.

2.

A body can have zero velocity but non-zero

acceleration.

3.

A body feels weightless in a projectile motion.

4.

The instantaneous magnitude of velocity is

equal to the slope of the tangent drown at the
trajectory of the particle at that instant.

5.

A body moving with a uniform velocity in one

frame A, then there is another frame B in
which it is accelerating.

6.

A lorry and a car moving with the same kinetic

energy are brought to rest by the application of
brakes which provide equal retarding forces.
Both come to rest in equal distances.

Part A
Motion In 1 D
4.
1.

The velocity-time graph of a particle moving

along a straight line is shown in Fig.
5.

4
V
(m/s)
0

2.

4 t(s)

(i) If the particle starts its motion from x =

4 m, then draw the a-t and x-t graphs.
(ii) Find the displacement of the particle at t =
3 s.
An objects move in a straight line as described
by the velocity time graph of fig. Sketch a
graph that represents the acceleration of the
objects as a function of time.

6.

A parachutist bails out and freely falls 50 m.

then the parachute opens, and thereafter he
decelerates at 20 m/s2. He reaches the ground
with a speed of 30 m/s.
(a) How long is the parachutist in the air?
(b) At what height did the fall begin?

7.

The position of a particle as it moves along the

y-axis is given by y = 20 sin (t/4), where t is
in seconds and y is in centimeters. (a) What is
the average velocity of the particle between t =
0 and t = 20 s? (b) What is the instantaneous
velocity of the particle at t = 0, 10 and 20 s?
(c) What is the average acceleration of the
particle between t = 0 and t = 20 s? (d) What
is the instantaneous acceleration of the particle
at t = 0, 10 and 20 s? (e) Plot v versus t for 0
t 20 s. and estimate the instantaneous
acceleration at t = 10 s from the graph.

8.

A point moving with constant acceleration

from A to B in the straight line AB has
velocities u and v at A and B respectively. Find
its velocity at C, the mid-point of AB. Also
show that if the time from A to C is twice that
from C to B, then v = 7u.

15
Velocity (m/s)

10
5
0

6 t in seco n d s

5
10

3.

(a) If the position of a particle is given by x

=20t 5t3, where x is in meters and t is in
seconds, when if ever, is the particles velocity
zero?
(b) When is its acceleration zero?
(a) When is the acceleration negative?
Positive?
(b) Graph x (t), v (t), and a(t).

Juggler tosses balls vertically a certain distance

into the air. How much higher must they toss if
they are to spend twice as much time in the
air?
Water drips from the nozzle of a shower onto
the floor 200 cm below. The drops fall at
regular intervals of time, the first drop striking
the floor at the instant the fourth drops begins
to fall. Find the locations of the second and
third drops when the first strikes the floor.

9.

A car accelerates from rest at a constant

rate for sometime after which it decelerates at
a constant rate to come to rest. If the total
time lapse is t seconds, evaluate
(i) the maximum velocity reached and
(ii) the total distance traveled.

Relative Velocity (1 D)
15. Two particles A and B start their motion from
the origin at the same instant. The acceleration
of particle A is 1 ms-2 and that of particle B is
05 ms-2.
(i) Find the relative velocity between the two
particles after 30 s.
(ii) Find the relative distance between the two
particles after 60 s.

10. Two mirrors, mounted vertically, are made to

move towards each other with a speed v m/s
each. A particle that can bounce back between
the two mirrors starts from one mirror when
the mirrors are d meters apart. On reaching the
second mirror, it bounces back and so on. If
the particle keeps on traveling at a constant
speed of 3 v m/s, how many trips can it make
before the mirrors run into each other? What
total distance does it cover?

16. A boat is traveling upstream at 14 km/h with

respect to the water of the river. The water
itself is flowing at 9 km/h with respect to the
ground.
(a) What is the velocity of the boat with
respect to the ground?
(b) A child on the boat walks from front to
rear at 6 km/f with respect to the boat.
What is the childs velocity with respect to
the ground?

11. If a body travels half of its total path in the last

seconds of its fall from rest, find the time and
height of its fall.

17. A person walks up a stationary escalator in t1

seconds. If he remains stationary on the
escalator, then it can take him up in t2 seconds.
If the length of the escalator is L, then
(i) Determine the speed of man with respect
to the escalator.
(ii) Determine the speed of the escalator
(iii) How much time would it take him to walk
up the moving escalator?

12. A particle is projected vertically upwards.

Prove that it will be at of its greatest height
at time, which are in the ratio 1 : 3.
13. From point A located on a highway one has to
get car as soon as possible to point B located in
the field at a distance l from the highway. It is
known that the car moves in

The field n times slower than on the highway.

At what distance from point D one must turn
off the highway?

18. Two cars, A and B, are traveling in the same

direction with velocities vA and vB
respectively. When car A is at distance d
behind car B, the brakes on A are applied,
causing a deceleration at the rate a. Show that
to prevent a collision between A and B it is
necessary that
(vA vB )2 < (2ad).

14. A point traversed half a circle of radius R =

160 cm during time interval = 100 s.
Calculate the following quantities averaged
over that time:
(a) The mean velocity v
(b) The modulus of the mean velocity vector
| v |;
(c) The modulus of the mean vector of the
total acceleration | w | if the point
moved with constant tangent acceleration.

19. Two towns A and B are connected by a regular

bus service with a bus leaving in wither
direction every T minutes. A man cycling with
a speed of u = 20 km/h in the direction A to B
notices that a bus goes past him every t1 = 18
minutes in the direction of his motion, and
every t2 = 6 minutes in the opposite direction.
What is the period T of the bus service and
with what speed do the busses ply on the road?
Assume that velocity of bus is greater than that
of the cyclist.

l
B

20. An elevator is descending with uniform

acceleration. To measure the acceleration, a
person in the elevator drops a coin at the
moment the elevator starts. The coin is 6 ft
above the floor of the elevator at the time it is
dropped. The person observes that the coin
strikes the floor in 1 second. Calculate from
these data the acceleration of the elevator.

25. A woman can row a boat 40 mi/h in still

water.
(a) If she is crossing a river where the current
is 20 mi/h, in the direction must her boat
is headed if she wants to reach a point
directly opposite her starting point?
(b) If the river is 40 mi wide, how long will it
take her to cross the river?
(c) Suppose that instead of crossing the river
she rows 20 mi down the river and then
back to her starting point. How long will
she take?
(d) How long will she take to row 20 mi up
the river and then back to her starting
point?
(e) In what direction should she head the boat
if she wants to cross in the shortest
possible time, and what is that time?

21. An elevator car whose floor-to-ceiling distance

is equal to 27 m starts ascending with constant
acceleration 12 m/s2; 20 s after the start a bolt
begins falling from the ceiling of the car. Find:
(a) the bolts free fall time;
(b) the displacement and the distance covered
by the bolt during the free fall in the
reference frame fixed to the elevator shaft.
22. A police van moving on a highway with a
speed of 30 km/h fires a bullet at thiefs car
speeding away in the same direction with a
speed of 192 km/hr. if the muzzle speed of the
bullet is 150 ms-1, with what speed does the
bullet hit the thiefs car?

Motion in 2 D
26. A particle is thrown over a triangle from one
end of a horizontal base and grazing the vertex
falls on the other end of the base. If and
be the base angles and be the angle of
projection, prove that tan = tan + tan.

Relative Velocity (2 D)
23. A helicopter is flying in a straight line over a
level field at a constant speed of 62 m/s and at
a constant altitude of 95 m. A package is
ejected horizontally from the helicopter with
an initial velocity of 12 m/s relative to the
helicopter, and in a direction opposite the
helicopters motion.
(a) Find the initial speed of the package
relative to the ground.
(b) What is the horizontal distance between
the helicopter and the package at the
instant the package strikes the ground?
(c) What angle does the velocity vector of the
package make with the ground at the
instant before impact, as seen from the
ground?

27. Two positions A and B at the same height h

above the ground. If the maximum height of
the projectile is H, then determine the time t
elapsed between the positions A and B in
terms of H.
28. A point moves in the plane xy according to the
law x = kt and y = kt(1-t), where k and are
positive constants and t is time. Find
(i) The equation of the points trajectory y(x)
(ii) The velocity v and acceleration a of the
point as function of time.
29. A particle is projected up an inclined plane of
inclination at an elevation to the
horizon. Show that
(i) Tan = cot + 2 tan, if the particle
strikes the plane at right angles;
(ii) Tan = 2 tan if the particle strikes the
plane horizontally.

24. A train travels due south at 30 m/s (relative to

ground) in a rain that is blown towards the
south by the wind. The path of each raindrop
makes an angle of 22 with the vertical, as
measured by an observer stationary on the
Earth. An observer on the train, however, seed
the drops fall perfectly vertically. Determine
the speed of the raindrops relative to the Earth.

30. A stone is projected from the point of a ground

in such a direction so as to hit a bird on the top
of the telegraph post of height h and then attain
the maximum height 2h above the ground. If at

he instant of projection, the bird was to fly

horizontally.

and moved with velocities v1 = 30 m/s and v2

= 40 m/s horizontally in opposite directions.
Find the distance between the particles at the
moment when their velocity vectors become
mutually perpendicular.

31. The velocity of a particle when it is at its

greatest height is ( 2 / 5) of its velocity when
it is at half its greatest height. Show that the
angle of projection is 60.
32. Two particles move in a uniform gravitational
field with an acceleration g. At the initial
moment the particles were located at one point

Part B
1.

A particle is moving in a plane with velocity

given by

5.

Particles P and Q of masses 20gm and 40 gm

respectively are simultaneously projected from
points A and B on the ground. The initial
velocities of P and Q make 45 and 135 angles
respectively with the horizontal. Each particle
has an initial speed of 49 m/sec. The separation
AB is 245 m. Both particles travel in the same
vertical plane and undergo a collision P
retraces its path. Determine the position of Q
when it hits the ground. How much times after
the collision does the particle Q takes reach the
(I.I.T. 1982)
ground. Take g = 98 m/sec2.

6.

A gun kept on a straight horizontal road is used

to hit a car, traveling along the same road away
from the gun with a uniform speed of 72
km/hour. The car is at a distance of 500 meter
from the gun, when the gun is fired at an angle
of 45 with the horizontal. Find
(i) The distance of the car from the gun when
the shell hits it.
(ii) The speed of projection of the shell from
the gun.
(I.I.T. 1974)

7.

A large heavy box is sliding without friction

down a smooth plane of inclination . from a
point P on the bottom of a box; a particle is
projected inside the box. The initial speed of
the particle with respect to a box is u and the
direction of projection makes an angle with
the bottom as shown in fig.

u = u 0 i + (a cos t) j , where i

and j are unit vectors along x and y axes

respectively. If particle is at the origin at t = 0.
(i) Calculate the trajectory of the particle.
(ii) Find the distance from the origin at time
3/2.
(Roorkee 1985)
2.

3.

4.

A particle of mass 10-2 kg is moving along the

positive x-axis under the influence of a force
F(x) = -K / 2x2, where K = 10-2 Nm2. At time t
= 0, it is at x = 10 m and its velocity is v = 0.
(i) Find the velocity when its reaches x = 050
m
(ii) Find the time at which it reaches x =
025m.
(I.I.T. 1998)
A body falling freely from a given height H
hits an inclined plane is its path at a height h.
As a result of this impact the direction of the
velocity of the body becomes horizontal. For
what value of (h/ H) the body will take
maximum time to reach the ground?
(I.I.T. 1986)
Two guns, situated of the top of a hill of height
10 m, fire one shot each with the same speed
53 m/s at some interval of time. One gun fires
horizontally and other fire upwards at an angle
of 60 with the horizontal. The shots collide in
air at a point P. Find
(I.I.T. 1996)
(i) The time interval between the firings, and
(ii) The coordinates of the point P. Take
origin of the coordinates system at the foot
of the hill right below the muzzle and
trajectories in X-Y plane.

(i) Find the distance along the bottom of the

box between the point of projection P and
the point Q where the particle lands.
(Assume that the particle does not hit any
other surface of the box. Neglect air
resistance).
(ii) If the horizontal displacement of the
particle as seen by an observer on the
ground is zero, find the speed of the box
with respect to the ground at the instant
when the particle was projected.
(I.I.T. 1998)
8.

C
P
A

At t0, the second ball is fired. Assume that the

resistive force between the rails and the
carriage is constant and ignore the vertical the
vertical motion of the carriage throughout. If
the second ball also hits and sticks to the
carriage, what will be the horizontal velocity
of the carriage just after the second impact?
(I.I.T. 2001)

An object A is kept fixed at the point x = 3m

and y = 125m on a plank P raised above the
ground. At time t = 0 the plank starts moving
along the +x direction with an acceleration
15m/s2.
Y
A

125 m

10. On a frictionless horizontal surface, assumed

to be the x-y plane, a small trolley A is moving
along a straight line parallel to the y-axis (fig.)
with a constant velocity of (3-1) m/s. At a
particular instant, when the line OA makes an
angle of 45 with the x-axis, a ball is thrown
along the surface from the origin O. Its
velocity makes an angle with the x-axis and
it hit the trolley.

u
X
o
At the same instant a stone is projected from
the origin with a velocity u as shown. A
stationary person on the ground observes the
stone hitting the object during its downward
motion at an angle of 45 to the horizontal. All
the motions are in the x-y plane. Find u and the
time after which the stone hits the object. Take
(I.I.T. 2000)
g = 10m/s2.
9.

Y
45
O

(i) The motion of the ball is observed from

the frame of the trolley. Calculate the
angle q made by the velocity vector of the
ball with the x-axis in this frame.
(ii) Find the speed of the ball with respect to
the surface, if = 4 /3.
(I.I.T. 2002)

A car P is moving with a uniform speed of 53

m/s towards a carriage of mass 9 kg at rest
kept on the rails at a point B as shown in fig.
The height AC is 120 m. Cannon balls of 1 kg
is fired from the car with an initial velocity 100
m/s at an angle 30 with the horizontal. The
first cannon ball hits the stationary carriage
after a time t0 and sticks to it. Determine t0.

Part C
1.

(ii) The mean velocity of the particle averaged

over the time that the particle takes to
cover first s meters of the path.

The velocity of a particle moving in the

positive direction of x-axis varies as v = x
where is positive constant. Assuming that at
the moment t = 0, the particle was located at x
= 0 find,
(i) The time dependence of the velocity and
the acceleration of the particle and

2.

A gun of muzzle speed v0 is situated at height

h above a horizontal plane. Prove that the
angle at which it must be fired so as to achieve
the greatest range on the plane given by

gh

= cos 1 2
2
v0 + gh
3.

The radii of the front and rear wheels of a

carriage are a and b respectively and c is the
distance between their axles. A dust particle
driven from the highest point of the rear wheel
is obtained to alight on the highest point of the
front wheel. Show that the velocity of the
carriage is

g (c + b a )(c + a b)

4(b a )

4.

Two ships A and B originally at a distance a =

3 km from each other depart at the same time
from a straight coastline. Ship A moves along
a straight line perpendicular to the shore while
ship B constantly heads from ship A with the
same speed v0. After a sufficiently long
interval B will obviously follow a maintaining
a certain distance. Find this distance.

8.

A ball falls freely from the height h onto an

inclined plane forming an angle with the
horizon. Find the ratio of the successive range
of the ball along the plane. Consider the
impacts between the ball and the plane to be
absolutely elastic.

9.

A boat moves relative to water with a velocity,

which is n = 20 times less than the river flow
velocity. At what angle to the stream direction
must the boat move to minimize drifting?

1/ 2

A perfectly elastic particle is projected with a

velocity V in a vertical plane through the line
of greatest slope of an inclined plane of
elevation . If after striking the plane, the
particle rebounds vertically, show that it will
return to the point of projection at the end of
time equal to

10. A point moves rectilinearly with deceleration

whose modulus depends on the velocity v of
the particle as w = av, where a is a positive
constant. At the initial moment the velocity of
the point is equal to v0. What distance will it
traverse before it stops? What time will it take
to cover that distance?

6V

g (1 + 8 sin 2 )

6V
g (1 + 8 sin 2 )
5.

Show that the shortest route to cross a river is

at right angles to the river and is D when v
(velocity of swimmer) > u (velocity of river
water) and in the reverse case it is Du/v where
D is the width of the river.

6.

Twp particles are projected simultaneously in

the same vertical plane, i and j being horizontal
and vertical unit vectors in that plane. The first
particle is projected from the origin with
velocity nV (cos

7.

11. A point moves in the plane xy according to the

law x = at, y = at (1 t), where a and are
positive constants, and t is time. Find:
(i) The equation of the points trajectory y
(x); plot this function;
(ii) The velocity v and the acceleration w of
the point as functions of time;
(iii) The moment t0 at which the velocity
vector forms an angle /4 with the
acceleration vector.

i + sin j ) and the second

12. A small body is thrown at an angle to the

horizontal with the initial velocity v0.
Neglecting the air drag, find:
(i) the displacement of the body as a function
at time r(t);
(ii) the mean velocity vector v averaged
over the first t seconds and over the total
time of motion.

is projected from a position (h i + kj ) where

h > 0, k > 0 with velocity V (- cos

i + sin j ). Show that the particle cannot

collide unless sin < n sin and if they
collide prove that sin ( + )= n sin ()
where tan = k/h.