Summer Assignment
AP Physics, C curriculum, Summer 2014
Mr. Brooks Hedstrom, Oakwood High School
This summer assignment is all stuff you’ve done before, and will serve as a review guide for our first test, which
will be on our second and/or third day of school. The test will be questions like these, with different numbers
and some other simple changes.
Please bookmark the AP Physics web page:
http://www2.oakwood.k12.oh.us/~brookshedstrom_mark/Site/AP_Physics.html
On that page you can find an electronic version of this assignment. Answers will be posted by July 10th, hints will
be posted by July 21st, and solutions will be posted by August 5th. You can also find links to all the enrichment
items at the end of this assignment.
Even though I am posting solutions, I will collect your work for Problems 1-11 on the first day of school, and then
we will go though any questions you may have on the solutions. You may attach extra sheets if you need more
space to do your work. Please make a copy of your work so you have a reference while we go over the solutions. I
will assign grades based on your work, not your answers.
You can use whatever resources you like when doing these problems (notes from class, various internet sources,
online textbook, friends, etc.). If you’d like to sign out a first-year physics textbook for the summer, just let me
know. You can also contact me with questions at my school email:
brookshedstrom.mark@oakwoodschools.org
The point of the 10 review problems is to remind you of the material we covered in Units 1 through 10 (Kinematics through SHM). Problem 11 is an attempt at helping you to think in terms of metric units. Having students do
this assignment over the summer will allow me to proceed with confidence on new material just a few days after
the start of the school year.
One more comment about the Day 2/3 Test: you will not be able to use a note card! This is one of the changes
from first-year physics. In AP Physics you need to learn the equations by heart so you know how to use them
without a note-card reference. (I like the phrase “learn by heart” more than memorize.) When you do these problems, really think about the equations you are using so you can remember them on the test.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1.
A particle starts at x=0 and then moves on the x-axis according to this velocitytime graph.
(a) Find the time and position of the furthest forward (positive) displacement.
(b) Find the time and position of the furthest backward (negative) displacement.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 1 of 11
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 2 of 11
(c) (Continuation of Problem 1) List all times when the particle is in position x=0.
2.
A toy rocket starts at rest at ground level. It then accelerates upward at 30.0m/s2 for 2.0s, after which time it
remains in free-fall until it strikes the ground.
(b) Find the time and height of the apex of its motion.
(a) Draw a diagram of this problem, with
variables and key points labeled.
(c) Find the time and velocity as it impacts the ground.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 3 of 11
r
3.
Find the vector sum Ftot of these three force vectors. All angles are measured CCW from the positive x-axis.
4.
You toss a ball at 27.0 m/s at an angle of 32.0° above the horizontal. The starting position is x=0, y=1.80m. We
will call ground level y=0 and suppose your release point is 1.80 meters above the ground. You may use algebraic or parametric techniques for this question.
(a) Find the time, x-position, y-position and velocity vector at the apex point.
r
F1 = 124N@ 23.7°
r
F2 = 207N @ 284.2°
r
F3 = 67N@ 165.5°
(b) It lands at ground level, 1.8 meters below the launch position. Find the time, x-position, y-position and
velocity vector at the landing point.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 4 of 11
5.
Fritz is pulling a m=80 kg sled by applying a tension force
T=520 N at an angle =35° above horizontal. The sled’s runners
have k=0.65 with the ground. Our goal is to calculate the acceleration of the sled, but along the way show your work by giving a free-body diagram and calculating Tx, Ty, Fg, FN, Fk, Fx,
and finally a.
6.
Now Fritz is pulling the 80-kg sled up a =35° hill. While the
sled is moving uphill, at one particular moment he is applying a
tension force of T=520 N parallel to the hill surface. The surface
still has k=0.65. Again, our goal is to calculate the acceleration
of the sled at this particular moment, but along the way show
your work by giving a free-body diagram and calculating Fg,
Fgx, Fgy, FN, Fk, Fx, and finally a.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 5 of 11
7.
A 1200-kg roller coaster car is placed on the following track for a trial run. At point A the car has v=1.0 m/s.
There is a mechanism under the track which brings the car from A to B at a constant 1.0 m/s. It is released at
point B at a speed of 1.0 m/s. Assume the track is frictionless except the region right before E, where it experiences a resistance force of 10,000 N for 50 meters due to splashing through some water. From E to F another
mechanism adds 20,000 J of energy.
Point
A
B
C
D
E
F
Vertical Position
15 m
66 m
0m
15 m
0m
24 m
Point
A
ME
GPE
KE
v
Work done on the
coaster-Earth system
by external forces
AB
B
BC
C
CD
D
DE
E
EF
F
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 6 of 11
8.
Toy car A mA=2.0 kg is moving at vAi=5.0 m/s to the right, while toy car B mB=1.2 kg is moving at vBi=–
6.0 m/s to the left. They collide and bounce back in-line with their original direction, with car A moving at
vAf=–2.5 m/s after the collision.
(a) Find the final velocity of car B.
(b) Find the amount of KE lost in this collision.
9.
A 0.4-kg ball is attached to a string and swung in a vertical circle of radius 0.60 meters. At the top of the circle
the ball has a horizontal velocity of 7.10 m/s and at the bottom of the circle the ball has a horizontal velocity
of 8.60 m/s.
r
r
(a) Draw a diagram showing the direction of a and v for the ball in (i) the top position and (ii) the bottom
position.
(b) Draw a free-body diagram for the ball in the top position and calculate the tension in the string.
(c) Draw a free-body diagram for the ball in the bottom position and calculate the tension in the string.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 7 of 11
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 8 of 11
(d) This is unrelated to the previous parts. A planet with mass M=6.00  1026 kg has a moon with mass
m=1.00  1023 kg. These objects have a center-to-center distance of 1.30  109 meters. Find the mutual gravitational force between these objects.
(e) Find the velocity that the moon would need to maintain a circular orbit.
(f) Find the time per orbit. Give your answer in seconds and in days.
10. A m=0.32 kg mass is attached to a horizontal k=45 N/m spring and oscillates on a frictionless floor. Call the
rest position x=0. The mass oscillates from maximum compression at x=–0.15 meters to maximum extension
at x=+0.15 meters.
(a) Find the period and
frequency of the oscillation.
(b) Find the maximum EPE of the system.
(c) Find the maximum velocity of the mass.
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 9 of 11
11. Estimate reasonable values for each of the following, using standard physics units. If you have no idea, consider making some measurements or doing a web search. But I’m not expecting precise values. Something
within a factor of 2 is fine.
(a) walking speed
(b) sprinting speed
(c) mass of a heavy book-bag
(d) weight of a single book
(e) mass of a pen
(f) weight of a car
(g) time for your cell phone to fall from a table to the floor
Enrichment
Killing your summer on the web watching videos? Why not learn a little physics instead of listening to silly girls
singing the days of the week? The following links (mostly videos) are all found on the AP Physics web page (see
page 1 of this assignment). Some of these would be good to watch weekends, late nights, during winter or spring
breaks and snow days all through the school year.
Old School
If you do nothing else, at least watch these three. They’re amusing and you’ll learn something along the way.
1. Frames of Reference
www.archive.org/details/frames_of_reference
2. Magnet Laboratory
www.archive.org/details/magnet_laboratory_1959
3. Coulomb’s Law
www.archive.org/details/coulombs_law
The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
4. Complete set of videos covering the AP Physics C curriculum
www.archive.org/details/ap_physics_c
MIT Open Courseware
5. Video lectures plus much more from a course on Classical Mechanics
ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01sc-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-2010/
6. Video lectures plus much more from a course on Electricity and Magnetism
ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02sc-physics-ii-electricity-and-magnetism-fall-2010/
The Mechanical Universe
7. Video lectures from Caltech
www.learner.org/resources/series42.html
Online Learning
You could learn a ton by sampling different courses at cosmolearning or the Khan Academy.
8. Lectures from Stanford
www.cosmolearning.com/courses/modern-physics-classical-mechanics/
9. Khan Academy Physics
www.khanacademy.org/#physics
Videos of Demonstrations
10. Whys Guy: a local TV morning news regular feature
www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/mats/whysguy.html
11. Carleton University (Canada) Physics Demos
www.youtube.com/user/CarletonPhysics
12. Veritasium: a YouTube channel devoted to physics concepts
www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium
Flying Circus of Physics
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 10 of 11
One of the authors of your textbook (the W in HRW) has put together this collection of videos, curious questions, news stories, etc. Most of them are referenced to a book of the same title.
13. Flying Circus of Physics
www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/
Summer 2014 AP Physics Assignment, Page 11 of 11