Newtonian mechanics covers the discussion of the movement of classical bodies under the influence of forces by making use of Newton’s three laws. For more general discussion of energy, momentum conservation etc., use classical-mechanics, for Newton’s description of gravity, use newtonian-gravity.

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How to calculate air resistance of penny dropped from Empire State Building?

If a penny is dropped from the Empire State Building, then its speed, without taking air resistance into consideration, is $\sqrt{\left(32\frac{\textrm{ft}}{\textrm{s}^2}\right)(1454\textrm{ ...
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14 views

Spring constant problem [closed]

Say, a spring AB is hung from the ceiling, a block of mass m is attached to B. Another spring CD making angle A with the vertical is attached to side B. What will happen next? Can the system stay in ...
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1answer
31 views

Short-duration forces

In circular motion, it is said that the centripetal force acts only for a very very short period of time, hence is able to only change the direction but not magnitude of the velocity. Similarly in a ...
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18 views

Force being applied to an object [closed]

I am working on a project and I do not have a clue about Physics. I have a 3400lb,1542kg object traveling at 210mph. When it is stopped by another object that is not in motion, what is the force of ...
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24 views

Finding the force of an object? [closed]

Sorry if my initial question was seen as a "homework question" but I don't really know how to go about asking this type of question. I have a feeling I have to use Newtons law but there is no ...
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3answers
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Where does the extra equation come from to determine the forces from an object on a table?

I have a question about basic statics but somehow I cannot manage to find the answer on my own (btw, this is not a homework. It's been so many years since school for me...). The problem is very ...
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2answers
57 views

Will a spinning object come to rest?

Will a sphere spinning on its own axis come to rest given enough time, provided no other forces act upon it? I know that if you have two spinning spheres in the depths of space and orbiting each ...
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23 views

Newton's Laws Question [closed]

Two identical bodies m1 = m2 their masses = m laid on On top of a horizontal table as shown. Between the entities There is static friction and kinetic Respectively. External force F On the upper body ...
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4answers
255 views

Terminal velocity of all falling objects is same?

Ideally 2 objects of different mass and weight will hit the floor at same time because they face same gravitational pull and accelerate. Will the terminal velocity of both objects be same also? and ...
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3answers
92 views

Violation of Newton's 3rd law

I'm just expressing my guess. Let two particles A and B experiences forces $F_1$ and -$F_2$ between them and let guess also there are two observer, one is stationary and other is moving with ...
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0answers
37 views

Why the screwdriver roll?

I am trying my level best to give this screwdriver a vertical push only, but it is going in a circular path. I thought of uneven friction due to non-uniform normal reaction...what do you think? I have ...
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44 views

stable equilibrium in the system

I'm trying to understand the solution of the following problem. A solid cube of uniform density and sides of b is in equilibrium on top of a cylinder of radius R. The planes of four sides of the ...
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2answers
54 views

Does the slip-stick phenomenon have any application?

The slip-stick phenomenon is present all around us, be it the noise of car breaks or in earthquakes. But does it have any real-life application?
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1answer
32 views

How does tension apply torque on a pulley?

How is tension in a string able to apply torque on a string? How does string itself able to apply a force on pulley? What is happening inside the pulley? The pulley has a mass m and is a disc .
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1answer
44 views

Escape velocity for hydrogen molecules

The question: At what temperature is the RMS speed of Hydrogen molecules equal to the escape speed from the earth's surface? Values of radius of earth($r$) and gas constant $R$ has been supplied ...
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23 views

Length Traveled from Complete Stop [closed]

A one-meter long rifle fires a bullet at a velocity of 800 m/s. What is the average acceleration experienced by the bullet when it is fired? (Hint: You need to find the time it takes the bullet to ...
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2answers
204 views

How large can planets or moons appear?

In many artistic impressions or movies there are pictures or scenes where the sky is filled with an enormous moon (as seen from a planet) or vice versa. I wonder if there is an upper limit to the ...
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0answers
14 views

Spring damper model does not work very well [migrated]

I'm trying to model a spring damper system from a tutorial that I've found on this site. If I use the exact same parameters as the ones in the tutorial the system is not stable. I've downloaded the ...
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1answer
45 views

Pulley system with rope

Two masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ are connected through a weighty, uniform and an unstretchable rope of length $L$. The surface is frictionless. Masses of the objects are $m_1=m$, $m_2=\frac{2}{3}m$, mass ...
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2answers
66 views

Intuition contradicting answer for calculating pressure

I have a cylindrical container say of some base area $A$. The atmospheric pressure is $P_0$. The cylinder is moved at an acceleration $a$ horizontally right. I need to find which base would have to ...
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2answers
51 views

Momentum, Impulse and Newton's Second Law of Motion

Newton formulated his Second Law as such: $$\sum{\vec{F}} = \frac{\delta \vec{p}}{\delta t}$$ and of course, $\vec{p} = m \vec{v}$. Why is it that if the net force $\sum \vec{F}$ is constant (which ...
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1answer
63 views

How do determine the equation of motion of slinky?

I'm trying to analyze the forces exerted to slinky. First, I've divided both ends. The red vector is the force exerted by slinky itself, and the green vector is gravitational force. Force exerted ...
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1answer
37 views

Problem with a rotating frame of reference on the South pole

Consider this problem: A high-speed train is traveling at a constant 150 m/s (about 300 mph) on a straight horizontal track across the south pole. Find the angle between a plumb line suspended ...
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2answers
78 views

How can a car's engine move the car?

Newton's First Law of Motion states that an object at rest or uniform motion tends to stay in that state of motion unless an unbalanced, external force acts on it. Say if I were in a car and I push ...
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1answer
62 views

Friction on a conveyor belt

I was surfing through an Olympiad paper and I was caught with this question. A block of mass 1 kg is stationary with respect to a conveyor belt that is accelerating with $1\, \tfrac{m}{s^2}$ ...
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4answers
254 views

How can I determine whether the mass of an object is evenly distributed?

How can I determine whether the mass of an object is evenly distributed without doing any permanent damage? Suppose I got all the typical lab equipment. I guess I can calculate its center of mass and ...
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64 views

Effective mass in Spring-with-mass/mass system

Suppose you have a particle of mass $m$ fixed to a spring of mass $m_0$ that, in turn, is fixed to some wall. I'm trying to calculate the effective mass $m'$ that appears in the law of motion of the ...
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1answer
29 views

Static friction force on a block in a tunnel

Linked to this Comparing Static Frictions Suppose there is a cuboidal vertical tunnel , and a cubical block in it such that all surface of the block are in contact with the four walls of the ...
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1answer
37 views

If An Object Explodes With A Force, What Force Are Fragments Given?

So let's say for example I have an object with 5kg of mass. It explodes with a force of 500N. The object fragments into four fragments: a 0.5kg, a 1kg, a 1.5kg and a 2kg object. What force does ...
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1answer
68 views

Vector cross product of $\mathbf{r}$ and $\ddot{\mathbf{r}}$ in polar coordinates

I'm struggling with the following question: Question 6 A planet of mass $m$ moves under the gravitational attraction of a central star of mass $M$. The equation of motion of the planet is ...
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19 views

newton's laws - involving block and conveyor belt [closed]

i was surfing through a physics book when i encountered this problem- A block of mass 1 kg is stationary with respect to a conveyor belt that is accelerating with 1 m/s^2 upwards at an angle of ...
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0answers
33 views

Lagrangian with a general constraint [closed]

Can any body help me out to solve this problem? I am familiar with mechanism of Lagrangian and I can solve some problems with constraints but this one is really hard to solve.
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4answers
128 views

Is it possible to whirl a point mass (attacted to a string) around in a horizontal circular motion *above* my hand?

I'm studying circular motion and centripetal force in college currently and there is a very simple question but confuses me (our teacher doesn't know how to explain either :/), so I hope we can sort ...
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1answer
26 views

A rod of length $L$ & mass $M$ is rotating in a circle about one end then calculate tension in the rod at a distance $x$ from the support

A rod of length L & mass M is rotating in a circle about one end then calculate tension in the rod at a distance 'x' from the support ? For its solution why should we take mass of L-x portion of ...
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1answer
41 views

Another Inclined plane question

I did the FBD, and I found too many variables which are not eliminating...Moreover, I believe this question is based on kinetic and static friction. But, $\mu$ here is ambiguously defined...How Do I ...
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3answers
31 views

The motion of a spring

I have a question about the force set by this spring, I saw many times that $\overrightarrow{F}=-Kx\overrightarrow{i}$. I'm asking why not using $\overrightarrow{F}=Kx\overrightarrow{i}$ without the ...
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1answer
53 views

Comparing Static Frictions

In this figure, which of the static frictional forces will be more? My aim isn't to solve this particular problem but to learn how is static friction distributed . Since each of the rough-surfaces ...
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3answers
107 views

Moment of Inertia (triangular plate)

I want to generalize the formula for the MOI of a triangular plate (sides $a,b,c$) about an axis passing through mid point of one sides and perpendicular to it's plane . The mass of plate $M$ is ...
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2answers
58 views

Massless string Paradox

If we introduce the notion of a massless string to denote the fact that net force on a massless string will always be $0$, since it is massless . How can these massless strings ever accelerate when ...
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1answer
60 views

Work done by Static friction

Here $v1$ is relative to the block on which sphere is pure rolling but static friction isn't $0$ as of now . In the following diagram, is work done by static friction $0$ ?, since the point of ...
3
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1answer
46 views

Boundary conditions on wave equation

I am having trouble understanding the boundary conditions. From the solutions, the first is that $D_1(0, t) = D_2(0, t)$ because the rope can't break at the junction. The second is that ...
2
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4answers
101 views

Potential energy sign conventions

Almost every book on physics that I read have some weird and non-clear explanations regarding the potential energy. Ok, I do understand that if we integrate a force over some path, we'll get a ...
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2answers
70 views

Centripetal Force Acceleration

Suppose you want to perform a uniform circular motion . Then a body performing uniform circular motion horizontally needs an acceleration $= \frac{v^2}{r}$ at each point on the circular path with ...
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1answer
56 views

Physics of the point of contact for a spinning top

I understand how spinning tops don't tip over, cf. e.g. this and this Phys.SE questions. What I'm more interested is in identifying the factors that determine the direction the spinning top moves to? ...
5
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1answer
71 views

In tennis, why does topspin serve bounce higher than flat serve?

When receiving servers (while playing tennis), I've noticed that the tennis ball seems to bounce up higher on me when the server uses a topspin serve than when the server hits a flat serve. Why is ...
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0answers
51 views

A slender rod with a ball at the end

A slender rod is attached to a block accelerating horizontally. The rod is free to rotate without friction. At the end of the rod is a ball. As the block accelerates, the slender rod will be deviated ...
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54 views

Object on an inclined plane

I was solving a question about inclined planes, and it got me thinking: Imagine a scenario where, an object is on an inclined plane and the inclined plane is on a frictionless surface, and is itself ...
4
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5answers
142 views

What do people actually mean by “rolling without slipping”?

I have never understood what's the meaning of the sentence "rolling without slipping". Let me explain. I'll give an example. Yesterday my mechanics professor introduced some concepts of rotational ...
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1answer
150 views

How reliant is the Solar System on being exactly the way it is?

We know that all objects with mass exert forces on all other objects of mass such that $$ F = \frac{GMm}{R^2}.$$ And as others have discussed the planets do interfere with each other ...
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1answer
59 views

Tension in a closed loop around an object, carrying stuff

Sorry when this sounds like a first year physics homework question, but it's actually not. It arose during a discussion regarding safe practices for rock climbing anchors... So here we go: Imagine ...

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