A dizzy bug

Classical Mechanics Level 1

A bug is somehow stuck on the rubber part of a tire.

Assuming the car maintains a constant speed, qualitatively what graph best represents the bug's vertical position vs. time?

Red curve (top) Green curve (middle) Blue curve (bottom)

Geoff Pilling by Geoff Pilling , 53, USA

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

3 solutions

Jordan Cahn
Dec 19, 2018

The bug's vertical position is not affected by the forward speed of the car; only the rotational speed of the tire is relevant. Considering the radius from the center of the tire to the bug's position, let θ \theta be the angle formed between this radius and the horizontal. Then the bug's height is r + r sin ⁡ θ r+r\sin\theta , where r r is the radius of the tire. Only the blue curve is a sine wave.

10 Helpful 2 Interesting 5 Brilliant 0 Confused
Vinod Kumar
Dec 29, 2018

The bottom and top part of the curve decide the answer as the slope of the third blue option is a continuous curve

1 Helpful 0 Interesting 3 Brilliant 0 Confused
M. V. G.
Aug 25, 2019

Cyclic motion. Cyclic motion in classical physics is often represented by a sine or cosine wave, hence resulting in those terms showing up in formulas for things such as, distance of the end of a spring from its middle.

0 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...