A Speck Of Dust!

A speck of dust of negligible mass begins to fall under gravity through a region of space with saturated water vapor. The vapor condenses on it at a constant rate A A per second. Calculate acceleration of the drop in ms 2 \text{ms}^{-2} .

Details And Assumptions

  • Consider the drop to travel through uniform gravitational field ( i e., g = 10 ms 2 g=10 \text{ ms}^{-2} )


The answer is 5.

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1 solution

Rohith M.Athreya
Feb 23, 2016

this is a variable mass system. so apart from change in velocity, change in mass also contributes to the net force. here, i use newton's second law of motion and little bit of differential calculus


Moderator's edits :

If rate of mass accumulation is A A ,

m ( t ) = A t m(t) = At where m ( t ) m(t) is instanteous mass of the Gpeck(?),

F ent = d p d t , p = momentum = m v F_\text{ent} = \dfrac{d\vec p}{dt} , \vec p = \text{ momentum } = m \vec v

F ent = d m v d t = m d v d t + v d m d t F_\text{ent} = \dfrac{d m\vec v}{dt} = m \dfrac {dv}{dt } + v \dfrac {dm}{dt}

m g = m d v f t + v d m d t mg = m \dfrac{dv}{ft} + v \dfrac{dm}{dt}

A t g = A t d v d t + v A g t = t d v + v d t d t = d t v d t Atg = At \dfrac{dv}{dt} + vA \Rightarrow gt = \dfrac{ t \; dv + v \; dt}{dt} = \dfrac{d tv}{dt}

g t d t = d v t t g d t = d v t gt \; dt = dv \; t \Rightarrow \int tg \, dt = \int dv \, t

g t 2 2 = v t v = g t 2 \dfrac{gt^2}2 = vt \Rightarrow v = \dfrac{gt}2

a = d v d t = g 2 = 5 ms 2 a = \dfrac{dv}{dt} = \dfrac g2 = 5 \text { ms}^{-2} .

The fact that I liked about this question is that it has almost no data given, yet we get a unique result

Mayank Singh - 5 years, 3 months ago

But since the drop falling freely , its acceleration should be the acceleration due to gravity i.e. 10 . it does not depend on the mass ??

Pradyumna Gupta - 5 years, 3 months ago

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no not at all!!

the mass accumulated provides thrust force and many things come into play

Rohith M.Athreya - 5 years, 3 months ago

Thats only when mass of a body is constant

Mayank Singh - 5 years, 3 months ago

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