Bungee jump

Alice got a bungee jump as a present. She is a bit afraid of this jump though. To take away this fear, she sets up a physical model and calculates the forces acting on her during that jump.

Without tension, the bungee rope has a length of l 0 = 25 m l_0 = 25 \, \text{m} . Stretching the rope beyond this length will result in a tension that obeys Hooke's law: F elast = K ( l l 0 ) . F_\text{elast} = - K (l - l_0). The spring constant of the rope is K = 120 N / m . K = 120 \, \text{N} / \text{m}.

At the beginning of the bungee jump, Alice is in free fall and only accelerates by gravity with g 10 m / s 2 g \approx 10 \,\text{m}/\text{s}^2 . After 25 meters of fall, the tension of the rope occurs and counteracts gravity so that the fall is intercepted. At the lowest point of a height z min , z_\text{min}, the direction of movement is reversed and Alice is catapulted up again.

How large is the acceleration a = d 2 z d t 2 a = \frac{d^2 z}{dt^2} that affects Alice at the lowest point?

Note: Alice weighs 75 kilograms. The mass of the bungee rope is negligible.

a = g a = - g a = 0 a = 0 a = + g a = + g a = + 2 g a = +2 g a = + 3 g a = +3 g a = + 4 g a = + 4 g

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1 solution

Markus Michelmann
Mar 22, 2018

Alice falls a distance Δ z = l -\Delta z = l that corresponds to the maximal length l l of the rope. Since her velocity is zero at the lowest point, the potential energy is completly converted into the elastic energy of the rope. This energy conservation can be used to calculate the maximum elongation Δ l \Delta l of the rope. E pot = E elast m g l = K 2 Δ l 2 , Δ l = l l 0 0 = Δ l 2 2 m g K Δ l 2 m g K l 0 Δ l = m g K + ( m g K ) 2 + 2 m g K l 0 \begin{aligned} & & E_\text{pot} &= E_\text{elast} \\ \Rightarrow & & m g l &= \frac{K}{2} \Delta l^2, \quad \Delta l = l - l_0 \\ \Rightarrow & & 0 &= \Delta l^2 - \frac{2 m g}{K} \Delta l - \frac{2 m g}{K} l_0 \\ \Rightarrow & & \Delta l &= \frac{m g}{K} + \sqrt{\left(\frac{m g}{K}\right)^2 + \frac{2 m g}{K} l_0 } \end{aligned} We can use the result to calculate the force at the lowest point F = F elast + F g = k Δ l m g = k ( m g K ) 2 + 2 m g K l 0 a = F m = 1 + 2 K l 0 m g g = 1 + 2 120 25 75 10 g = 3 g \begin{aligned} F &= F_\text{elast} + F_\text{g} \\ &= k \Delta l - m g \\ &= k \sqrt{\left(\frac{m g}{K}\right)^2 + \frac{2 m g}{K} l_0 } \\ \Rightarrow \quad a &= \frac{F}{m} \\ &= \sqrt{1 + \frac{2 K l_0}{m g}} \cdot g\\ &= \sqrt{1 + \frac{2 \cdot 120 \cdot 25}{75 \cdot 10}} \cdot g \\ &= 3 \cdot g \end{aligned}

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