We often discuss questions in class. Here you can find the questions to print out and have with you during class. The questions are broken down in units.

• Kinematics

• One Dimensional Dynamics (Newton's Laws)

• Two Dimensional Dynamics (Inclined Planes)

• Other Forces (Gravitation)

• Momentum

  1. If a boxer is able to make the duration of the punch three times as long by riding with the punch, by how much will the force of impact be reduced?

  2. If the boxer instead moves into the punch such as to decrease the duration of impact b y half, by how much will the force of impact be increased?

  3. A boxer being hit with a punch contrives to extend time for best results, whereas a karate expert delivers a force in a short time for best results. Isn't there a contradiction?  Explain.

  4. When does impulse equal momentum?

  5. When you deliver a karate chop to a stack of bricks, how will the impulse differ if your hand bounces back upon striking the block?

  6. How does the force exerted on the bricks compare to the force exerted on your hand?

  7. If you toss a ball horizontally while on a skateboard , you'll roll backward with the same amount of momentum given to the ball. Will you roll backward if you go through the motions of tossing the ball, but hold onto it? Explain.

  8. Two carts, one twice the mass of the other, are connected by a spring. The spring is then released; how do the speeds of the carts compare? How do the momentums compare?

  9. A block is gliding to the right with a speed v. It collides with a stationary block that is three times as massive. How fast will the coupled carts slide after the collision?

  10. A hungry 4 kg fish swims toward and encounters a sleepy 1 kg fish swimming toward it at four times its own speed. Compared to before lunch, how fast is the hungry fish moving immediately after lunch?

  11. When a stationary uranium nucleus undergoes fission, it breaks into two unequal chunks that fly apart. What do you conclude about the momenta of the chunks? What can you conclude about the relative speeds?

  12. You can survive a feet first impact at a speed of about 12 m/sec on concrete, 15 m/sec on soil, and 34 m/sec on water. Why the different values for different surfaces?

  13. Which would be more damaging: driving into a massive concrete wall or having a head on collision with an identical car traveling toward you at the same speed?

  14. Our galaxy may have begun as a huge cloud of gas and particles. Suppose the original cloud was far larger than the present size of the galaxy, was more or less spherical, and was rotating very much more slowly than at present. Gravitation between particles would have pulled them closer. What would be the role of angular momentum conservation on the galaxy's shape and present rotational speed?

• Work and Energy

• Waves

• Optics

• Electricity

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