Part IA, 2013, Paper 4
Part IA, 2013, Paper 4
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Paper 4 , Section II, B
comment(i) An inertial frame has orthonormal coordinate basis vectors . A second frame rotates with angular velocity relative to and has coordinate basis vectors . The motion of is characterised by the equations and at the two coordinate frames coincide.
If a particle has position vector show that where and are the velocity vectors of as seen by observers fixed respectively in and .
(ii) For the remainder of this question you may assume that where and are the acceleration vectors of as seen by observers fixed respectively in and , and that is constant.
Consider again the frames and in (i). Suppose that with constant. A particle of mass moves under a force . When viewed in its position and velocity at time are and . Find the motion of the particle in the coordinates of . Show that for an observer fixed in , the particle achieves its maximum speed at time and determine that speed. [Hint: you may find it useful to consider the combination .]
Paper 4, Section , B
commentA frame moves with constant velocity along the axis of an inertial frame of Minkowski space. A particle moves with constant velocity along the axis of . Find the velocity of in .
The rapidity of any velocity is defined by . Find a relation between the rapidities of and .
Suppose now that is initially at rest in and is subsequently given successive velocity increments of (each delivered in the instantaneous rest frame of the particle). Show that the resulting velocity of in is
where .
[You may use without proof the addition formulae and .]
Paper 4, Section I, B
commentA hot air balloon of mass is equipped with a bag of sand of mass which decreases in time as the sand is gradually released. In addition to gravity the balloon experiences a constant upwards buoyancy force and we neglect air resistance effects. Show that if is the upward speed of the balloon then
Initially at the mass of sand is and the balloon is at rest in equilibrium. Subsequently the sand is released at a constant rate and is depleted in a time . Show that the speed of the balloon at time is
[You may use without proof the indefinite integral ]
Paper 4, Section II, B
comment(a) Let with coordinates and with coordinates be inertial frames in Minkowski space with two spatial dimensions. moves with velocity along the -axis of and they are related by the standard Lorentz transformation:
A photon is emitted at the spacetime origin. In it has frequency and propagates at angle to the -axis.
Write down the 4 -momentum of the photon in the frame .
Hence or otherwise find the frequency of the photon as seen in . Show that it propagates at angle to the -axis in , where
A light source in emits photons uniformly in all directions in the -plane. Show that for large , in half of the light is concentrated into a narrow cone whose semi-angle is given by .
(b) The centre-of-mass frame for a system of relativistic particles in Minkowski space is the frame in which the total relativistic 3-momentum is zero.
Two particles and of rest masses and move collinearly with uniform velocities and respectively, along the -axis of a frame . They collide, coalescing to form a single particle .
Determine the velocity of the centre-of-mass frame of the system comprising and .
Find the speed of in and show that its rest mass is given by
where
Paper 4, Section II, B
comment(a) A rigid body is made up of particles of masses at positions . Let denote the position of its centre of mass. Show that the total kinetic energy of may be decomposed into , the kinetic energy of the centre of mass, plus a term representing the kinetic energy about the centre of mass.
Suppose now that is rotating with angular velocity about its centre of mass. Define the moment of inertia of (about the axis defined by ) and derive an expression for in terms of and .
(b) Consider a uniform rod of length and mass . Two such rods and are freely hinged together at . The end is attached to a fixed point on a perfectly smooth horizontal floor and is able to rotate freely about . The rods are initially at rest, lying in a vertical plane with resting on the floor and each rod making angle with the horizontal. The rods subsequently move under gravity in their vertical plane.
Find an expression for the angular velocity of rod when it makes angle with the floor. Determine the speed at which the hinge strikes the floor.
Paper 4, Section II, B
comment(a) A particle of unit mass moves in a plane with polar coordinates . You may assume that the radial and angular components of the acceleration are given by , where the dot denotes . The particle experiences a central force corresponding to a potential .
(i) Prove that is constant in time and show that the time dependence of the radial coordinate is equivalent to the motion of a particle in one dimension in a potential given by
(ii) Now suppose that . Show that if then two circular orbits are possible with radii and . Determine whether each orbit is stable or unstable.
(b) Kepler's first and second laws for planetary motion are the following statements:
K1: the planet moves on an ellipse with a focus at the Sun;
K2: the line between the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Show that K2 implies that the force acting on the planet is a central force.
Show that K2 together with implies that the force is given by the inverse square law.
[You may assume that an ellipse with a focus at the origin has polar equation with and .]
Paper 4, Section I, E
commentLet be a sequence of real numbers. What does it mean to say that the sequence is convergent? What does it mean to say the series is convergent? Show that if is convergent, then the sequence converges to zero. Show that the converse is not necessarily true.
Paper 4, Section I, E
commentLet and be positive integers. State what is meant by the greatest common divisor of and , and show that there exist integers and such that . Deduce that an integer divides both and only if divides .
Prove (without using the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic) that for any positive integer .
Paper 4, Section II,
comment(i) What does it mean to say that a set is countable? Show directly from your definition that any subset of a countable set is countable, and that a countable union of countable sets is countable.
(ii) Let be either or . A function is said to be periodic if there exists a positive integer such that for every . Show that the set of periodic functions from to itself is countable. Is the set of periodic functions countable? Justify your answer.
(iii) Show that is not the union of a countable collection of lines.
[You may assume that and the power set of are uncountable.]
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentLet be a prime number, and integers with .
(i) Prove Fermat's Little Theorem: for any integer .
(ii) Show that if is an integer such that , then for every integer ,
Deduce that
(iii) Show that there exists a unique integer such that
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(i) Let and be integers with . Let be the set of -tuples of non-negative integers satisfying the equation . By mapping elements of to suitable subsets of of size , or otherwise, show that the number of elements of equals
(ii) State the Inclusion-Exclusion principle.
(iii) Let be positive integers. Show that the number of -tuples of integers satisfying
where the binomial coefficient is defined to be zero if .
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(i) What does it mean to say that a function is injective? What does it mean to say that is surjective? Let be a function. Show that if is injective, then so is , and that if is surjective, then so is .
(ii) Let be two sets. Their product is the set of ordered pairs with . Let (for be the function
When is surjective? When is injective?
(iii) Now let be any set, and let be functions. Show that there exists a unique such that and .
Show that if or is injective, then is injective. Is the converse true? Justify your answer.
Show that if is surjective then both and are surjective. Is the converse true? Justify your answer.