CAIE A-Level Physics A2 17.3.2 The Terms Light Critical and Heavy Damping and Sketch Displacement Time

[Maximum number: 3]

A heavy metal sphere of mass 0.81 kg is suspended from a string. The sphere is undergoing small oscillations from side to side, as shown in Fig. 4.1.

Fig. 4.1

The oscillations of the sphere may be considered to be simple harmonic with amplitude 0.036 m and period 3.0 s .

The suspended sphere is now lowered into water. The sphere is given a sideways displacement of +0.036 m from its equilibrium position and is then released at time t=0. The water causes the motion of the sphere to be critically damped.

On Fig. 4.2, sketch the variation of the displacement x of the sphere from its equilibrium position with t from t=0 to $t=6.0 \mathrm{~s}$ .

Fig. 4.2

sketch: line starting at ( 0,0.036 ) and not reaching $x= \pm 0.036 \mathrm{~m}$ at any other time
smooth curve, with no sudden changes in gradient, showing continuously decreasing magnitude of x from
maximum displacement at t=0 to final displacement of zero where the gradient is also zero
displacement reaches final value of zero between $t=0.75 \mathrm{~s}$ and $t=3.0 \mathrm{~s}$ at the latest

CAIE A-Level Physics A2 17.3.2 The Terms Light Critical and Heavy Damping and Sketch Displacement Time Topic Practice

Question 1