SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Tutorial 5 – Week 10
Fluids and Vibrations & Waves

1. A bottle has a mass of 35 g when empty and 98.44 g when filled with water. When filled with
another fluid, the mass is 88.78 g. What is the specific gravity of this other fluid?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟖𝟒𝟕𝟕)

2. If 5 L of antifreeze solution (specific gravity = 0.8) is added to 4 L of water to make a 9 L

mixture, what is the specific gravity of the mixture?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟖𝟗)

3. The gauge pressure in each of the four tires of an automobile is 240 kPA. If each tire has a
“footprint” of 220 cm2, estimate the mass of the car.
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟐 × 𝟏𝟎𝟑 𝐤𝐠)

4. How high would the atmosphere extend if it were of uniform density throughout, equal to half
the present density at sea level?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟔 × 𝟏𝟎𝟒 𝐦)

5. A geologist finds that a Moon rock whose mass is 9.28 kg has an apparent mass of 6.18 kg
when submerged in water. What is the density of the rock?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟗𝟗 × 𝟏𝟎𝟑 𝐤𝐠/𝐦𝟑 )

6. A fisherman’s scale stretches 3.6 cm when a 2.7 kg fish hangs from it.
a) What is the spring stiffness constant?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟕. 𝟒 × 𝟏𝟎𝟐 𝐍/𝐦)
b) What will be the amplitude and frequency of vibration if the fish is pulled down 2.5 cm
more and released so it vibrates up and down?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝐀 = 𝟐. 𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟐 𝐦, 𝒇 = 𝟐. 𝟔 𝐇𝐳)

7. An elastic cord vibrates with a frequency of 3 Hz when a mass of 0.6 kg is hung from it. What
is its frequency if only 0.38 kg hangs from it?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟑. 𝟖 𝐇𝐳)
8. A small fly of mass 0.25 g is caught in a spider’s web. The web vibrates predominantly with a
frequency of 4 Hz.
a) What is the value of the effective spring stiffness constant k for the web?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟏𝟔 𝐍/𝐦)
b) At what frequency would you expect the web to vibrate if an insect of mass 0.5 g were
trapped?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟖 𝐇𝐳)

9. A 0.6 kg mass at the end of a spring vibrates 3 times per second with an amplitude of 0.13 m.
Determine:
a) The velocity when it passes the equilibrium point
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟓 𝐦/𝐬)
b) The velocity when it is 0.1 m from the equilibrium
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: ±𝟏. 𝟔 𝐦/𝐬)
c) The total energy of the system
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟖 𝐉)
d) The equation describing the motion of the massing, assuming that x was a maximum at
t=0
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝒙 = (𝟎. 𝟏𝟑 𝐦)𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝟔𝝅𝒕))

10. At what displacement from equilibrium is the speed of a simple harmonic oscillator half the
maximum value?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝒙 ≈ 𝟎. 𝟖𝟔𝟔𝐀)

11. A mass of 2.62 kg stretches a vertical spring 0.315 m. If the spring is stretched an additional
0.13 m and released, how long does it take to reach the (new) equilibrium position again?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟐𝟖𝟐 𝐬)

12. A 0.6 kg mass vibrates according to the equation 𝑥 = 0.45 cos 6.4𝑡, where x is in metres and
t is in seconds. Determine:
a) The amplitude
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟒𝟓 𝐦)
b) The frequency
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟎𝟐 𝐇𝐳)
c) The total energy
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟓 𝐉)
d) The kinetic energy and potential energies when x = 0.3 m
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝐄𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 = 𝟏. 𝟏 𝐉, 𝐄𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 = 𝟏. 𝟒 𝐉)

13. At what displacement from equilibrium is the energy of a simple harmonic oscillator half KE
and half PE?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝒙 ≈ ±𝟎. 𝟕𝟎𝟕 𝐀)
14. At t = 0, a 755 g mass at rest on the end of a horizontal spring (k = 124 N/m) is struck by a
hammer, which gives the mass an initial speed of 2.96 m/s. Determine:
a) The period and frequency of the motion
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝐓 = 𝟎. 𝟒𝟗 𝐬, 𝒇 = 𝟐. 𝟎𝟒 𝐇𝐳)
b) The amplitude
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟐𝟑𝟏 𝐦)
c) The maximum acceleration
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟑𝟕. 𝟗 𝐦/𝐬 𝟐 )
d) The position as a function of time
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝒙 = (𝟎. 𝟐𝟑𝟏 𝐦)𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝟒. 𝟎𝟖𝝅𝒕))
e) The total energy
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟑. 𝟑𝟏 𝐉)

15. A pendulum has a period of 0.8 s on Earth. What is its period on Mars, where the acceleration
of gravity is about 0.37 that on Earth?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟑 𝐬)

16. What is the period of a simple pendulum 80 cm long:

a) On the Earth?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟖 𝐬)
b) When it is in a freely falling elevator?

17. A fisherman notices that wave crests pass the bow of his anchored boat every 3 s. He
measures the distance between two crests to be 6.5 m. How fast are the waves travelling?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟐 𝐦/𝐬)

18.
a) AM radio signals have frequencies between 550 kHz and 1 600 kHz and travel with a
speed of 3×108 m/s. What are the wavelengths of these signals?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏𝟗𝟎 𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝟓𝟓𝟎 𝐦)
b) On FM, the frequencies range from 88 MHz to 108 MHz and travel at the same speed;
what are their wavelengths?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟐. 𝟕𝟖 𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝟑. 𝟒𝟏 𝐦)

19. Two solid rods have the same elastic modulus, but one is twice as dense as the other. In which
rod will the speed of longitudinal waves be greater, and by what factor?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟏. 𝟒𝟏 (𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥)

20. A cord of mass 0.65 kg is stretched between two supports 28 m apart. If the tension in the
cord is 150 N, how long will it take a pulse to travel from one support to another?
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟑𝟓 𝐬)

21. What is the ratio of:

a) The intensities, and
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟐𝟓)
b) The amplitudes, of an earthquake P wave passing through the Earth and detected at two
points 10 km and 20 km from the source.
(𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: 𝟎. 𝟓)