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Galileo developed a formula for a body's velocity during free fall by rolling balls from rest down increasingly steep inclined planks and looking for a limiting formula that would predict a ball's behavior when the plank was vertical and the ball fell freely; see part (a) of the accompanying figure. He found that, for any given angle of the plank, the ball's velocity \(t\) seconds into motion was a constant multiple of \(t .\) That is, the velocity was given by a formula of the form \(v=k t .\) The value of the constant \(k\) depended on the inclination of the plank. In modern notation-part (b) of the figure-with distance in meters and time in seconds, what Galileo determined by experiment was that, for any given angle \(\theta,\) the ball's velocity \(t\) s into the roll was $$v=9.8(\sin \theta) t \mathrm{m} / \mathrm{s}.$$ a. What is the equation for the ball's velocity during free fall? b. Building on your work in part (a), what constant acceleration does a freely falling body experience near the surface of Earth?

Short Answer

Expert verified
a. The velocity equation is \( v = 9.8t \). b. The constant acceleration is 9.8 m/s².

Step by step solution

01

Understanding the Problem

We are given that the velocity of a ball rolling down an inclined plane is given by the formula \( v = 9.8 \sin(\theta) t \). For free fall, the plank is vertical, which means the angle \( \theta = 90^\circ \). Our task is to find the velocity equation during free fall and then determine the constant acceleration.
02

Calculate the Velocity for Free Fall

When the plank is vertical, \( \theta = 90^\circ \). The sine of 90 degrees is 1. Thus, the equation for velocity during free fall becomes: \[ v = 9.8 \sin(90^\circ) t = 9.8 \cdot 1 \cdot t = 9.8t \].
03

Determine the Constant Acceleration

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. For a freely falling object, the velocity formula is \( v = 9.8t \). Since acceleration is defined as \( a = \frac{dv}{dt} \), differentiating \( v = 9.8t \) with respect to \( t \) gives \( a = 9.8 \). This is the constant acceleration.

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Key Concepts

These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.

Velocity in Free Fall
In physics, free fall refers to the movement of an object under the influence of gravitational force only. This means there are no other forces acting, such as air resistance. Now, let's look into how Galileo's experiments give us a clear understanding of this concept.

Galileo discovered that when an object is in free fall, its velocity increases constantly over time. This is because the object accelerates due to gravity. A key finding from his experiments is the formula that gives the object's velocity in free fall:
  • Velocity: \( v = 9.8t \)
  • Where \( v \) is the velocity in meters per second (m/s)
  • \( t \) is the time in seconds
This equation shows that velocity is directly proportional to time. As time increases, the velocity of the object also increases at a constant rate.
By using this equation, we can predict how fast an object will be moving at any point during its free fall, provided we know how long it has been falling. This is crucial for understanding the dynamics of motion under gravity and forms the basis for many principles in mechanics.
Inclined Plane Experiments
Galileo's inclined plane experiments were pioneering efforts to study the acceleration of objects. Before he studied objects in free fall, he rolled spheres down inclined planes. This allowed him to carefully observe how objects accelerate under a constant force with reduced friction and more controlled conditions.

The setup was ingenious because it slowed down the motion, letting Galileo and his students measure time and distance more accurately. When balls rolled down different angles of incline, he observed that regardless of the angle, the velocity at any given time was a constant multiple of time. This is expressed in the formula:
  • Velocity on an inclined plane: \( v = 9.8 \sin(\theta) t \)
  • \(\theta\) is the angle of the incline
  • If the slope is vertical, \(\theta = 90^\circ \) & \(\sin(90^\circ) = 1\)
By gradually increasing the plane's steepness, he noted that when the angle reached 90 degrees, the motion mimicked free fall perfectly. This led to the modern understanding of free fall acceleration on Earth being akin to dropping from vertical height.
Constant Acceleration Due to Gravity
The concept of constant acceleration is pivotal in understanding how objects behave when they are in free fall. Near the surface of Earth, objects experience a constant acceleration due to gravity (denoted as \( g \)).

Galileo’s experiments showed that this acceleration equals approximately 9.8 meters per second squared (m/s²). This number comes from the equation of motion for free fall, where the velocity increases linearly with time:
  • \( a = \frac{dv}{dt} \)
  • For \( v = 9.8t \), that derivative gives \( a = 9.8 \)
This indicates that if you drop an object, its speed will increase by roughly 9.8 m/s for every second it falls, assuming no air resistance.

This constant acceleration is fundamental for calculations related to motion and is used extensively in physics to solve problems involving falling objects. It's a universal figure that applies irrespective of the object's mass, which means that in a vacuum, all objects fall at the same rate. This principle revolutionized how we understand motion and set the foundation for Newton's Laws of Motion.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Use a CAS to estimate the magnitude of the error in using the linearization in place of the function over a specified interval \(I\). Perform the following steps: a. Plot the function \(f\) over \(I\) b. Find the linearization \(L\) of the function at the point \(a\) c. Plot \(f\) and \(L\) together on a single graph. d. Plot the absolute error \(|f(x)-L(x)|\) over \(I\) and find its maximum value. e. From your graph in part (d), estimate as large a \(\delta>0\) as you can, satisfying \(|x-a|<\delta \quad \Rightarrow \quad|f(x)-L(x)|<\epsilon\) for \(\epsilon=0.5,0.1,\) and \(0.01 .\) Then check graphically to see if your \(\delta\) -estimate holds true. $$f(x)=\frac{x-1}{4 x^{2}+1}, \quad\left[-\frac{3}{4}, 1\right], \quad a=\frac{1}{2}$$

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In the late 1860 s, Adolf Fick, a professor of physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Würzberg, Germany, developed one of the methods we use today for measuring how much blood your heart pumps in a minute. Your cardiac output as you read this sentence is probably about \(7 \mathrm{L} / \mathrm{min} .\) At rest it is likely to be a bit under \(6 \mathrm{L} / \mathrm{min}\). If you are a trained marathon runner running a marathon, your cardiac output can be as high as \(30 \mathrm{L} / \mathrm{min}\). Your cardiac output can be calculated with the formula $$y=\frac{Q}{D},$$ where \(Q\) is the number of milliliters of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) you exhale in a minute and \(D\) is the difference between the \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) concentration \((\mathrm{mL} / \mathrm{L})\) in the blood pumped to the lungs and the \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) concentration in the blood returning from the lungs. With \(Q=233 \mathrm{mL} / \mathrm{min}\) and \(D=97-56=41 \mathrm{mL} / \mathrm{L}\), \(y=\frac{233 \mathrm{mL} / \mathrm{min}}{41 \mathrm{mL} / \mathrm{L}} \approx 5.68 \mathrm{L} / \mathrm{min}\), fairly close to the \(6 \mathrm{L} / \mathrm{min}\) that most people have at basal (resting) conditions. (Data courtesy of J. Kenneth Herd, M.D., Quillan College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University.) Suppose that when \(Q=233\) and \(D=41,\) we also know that \(D\) is decreasing at the rate of 2 units a minute but that \(Q\) remains unchanged. What is happening to the cardiac output?

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