# 7.5 Nonconservative forces  (Page 3/5)

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## Calculating distance traveled: sliding up an incline

Suppose that the player from [link] is running up a hill having a $5\text{.}\text{00º}$ incline upward with a surface similar to that in the baseball stadium. The player slides with the same initial speed. Determine how far he slides.

Strategy

In this case, the work done by the nonconservative friction force on the player reduces the mechanical energy he has from his kinetic energy at zero height, to the final mechanical energy he has by moving through distance $d$ to reach height $h$ along the hill, with $h=d\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{sin}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}5.00º$ . This is expressed by the equation

$\text{KE}{}_{\text{i}}\text{}+{\text{PE}}_{\text{i}}+{W}_{\text{nc}}={\text{KE}}_{\text{f}}+{\text{PE}}_{\text{f}}\text{.}$

Solution

The work done by friction is again ${W}_{\text{nc}}=-\text{fd}$ ; initially the potential energy is ${\text{PE}}_{i}=\text{mg}\cdot 0=0$ and the kinetic energy is ${\text{KE}}_{i}=\frac{1}{2}{{\text{mv}}_{i}}^{2}$ ; the final energy contributions are ${\text{KE}}_{f}=0$ for the kinetic energy and ${\text{PE}}_{f}=\text{mgh}=\text{mgd}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{sin}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\theta$ for the potential energy.

Substituting these values gives

$\frac{1}{2}{{\text{mv}}_{i}}^{2}+0+\left(-\text{fd}\right)=0+\text{mgd}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{sin}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\theta .}$

Solve this for $d$ to obtain

$\begin{array}{lll}d& =& \frac{\left(\frac{1}{2}\right){{\text{mv}}_{\text{i}}}^{2}}{f+\text{mg}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{sin}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\theta }\\ & =& \frac{\text{(0.5)}\left(\text{65.0 kg}\right)\left(\text{6.00 m/s}{\right)}^{2}}{\text{450 N}+\left(\text{65.0 kg}\right)\left({\text{9.80 m/s}}^{2}\right)\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\text{sin (5.00º)}}^{}}\\ & =& \text{2.31 m.}\end{array}$

Discussion

As might have been expected, the player slides a shorter distance by sliding uphill. Note that the problem could also have been solved in terms of the forces directly and the work energy theorem, instead of using the potential energy. This method would have required combining the normal force and force of gravity vectors, which no longer cancel each other because they point in different directions, and friction, to find the net force. You could then use the net force and the net work to find the distance $d$ that reduces the kinetic energy to zero. By applying conservation of energy and using the potential energy instead, we need only consider the gravitational potential energy $\text{mgh}$ , without combining and resolving force vectors. This simplifies the solution considerably.

## Making connections: take-home investigation—determining friction from the stopping distance

This experiment involves the conversion of gravitational potential energy into thermal energy. Use the ruler, book, and marble from Take-Home Investigation—Converting Potential to Kinetic Energy . In addition, you will need a foam cup with a small hole in the side, as shown in [link] . From the 10-cm position on the ruler, let the marble roll into the cup positioned at the bottom of the ruler. Measure the distance $d$ the cup moves before stopping. What forces caused it to stop? What happened to the kinetic energy of the marble at the bottom of the ruler? Next, place the marble at the 20-cm and the 30-cm positions and again measure the distance the cup moves after the marble enters it. Plot the distance the cup moves versus the initial marble position on the ruler. Is this relationship linear?

With some simple assumptions, you can use these data to find the coefficient of kinetic friction ${\mu }_{k}$ of the cup on the table. The force of friction $f$ on the cup is ${\mu }_{k}N$ , where the normal force $N$ is just the weight of the cup plus the marble. The normal force and force of gravity do no work because they are perpendicular to the displacement of the cup, which moves horizontally. The work done by friction is $\text{fd}$ . You will need the mass of the marble as well to calculate its initial kinetic energy.

It is interesting to do the above experiment also with a steel marble (or ball bearing). Releasing it from the same positions on the ruler as you did with the glass marble, is the velocity of this steel marble the same as the velocity of the marble at the bottom of the ruler? Is the distance the cup moves proportional to the mass of the steel and glass marbles?

## Phet explorations: the ramp

Explore forces, energy and work as you push household objects up and down a ramp. Lower and raise the ramp to see how the angle of inclination affects the parallel forces acting on the file cabinet. Graphs show forces, energy and work.

## Section summary

• A nonconservative force is one for which work depends on the path.
• Friction is an example of a nonconservative force that changes mechanical energy into thermal energy.
• Work ${W}_{\text{nc}}$ done by a nonconservative force changes the mechanical energy of a system. In equation form, ${W}_{\text{nc}}=\text{Δ}\text{KE}+\text{Δ}\text{PE}$ or, equivalently, ${\text{KE}}_{\text{i}}+{\text{PE}}_{\text{i}}+{W}_{\text{nc}}={\text{KE}}_{\text{f}}+{\text{PE}}_{\text{f}}$ .
• When both conservative and nonconservative forces act, energy conservation can be applied and used to calculate motion in terms of the known potential energies of the conservative forces and the work done by nonconservative forces, instead of finding the net work from the net force, or having to directly apply Newton’s laws.

## Problems&Exercises

A 60.0-kg skier with an initial speed of 12.0 m/s coasts up a 2.50-m-high rise as shown in [link] . Find her final speed at the top, given that the coefficient of friction between her skis and the snow is 0.0800. (Hint: Find the distance traveled up the incline assuming a straight-line path as shown in the figure.)

9.46 m/s

(a) How high a hill can a car coast up (engine disengaged) if work done by friction is negligible and its initial speed is 110 km/h? (b) If, in actuality, a 750-kg car with an initial speed of 110 km/h is observed to coast up a hill to a height 22.0 m above its starting point, how much thermal energy was generated by friction? (c) What is the average force of friction if the hill has a slope $2\text{.}5º$ above the horizontal?

what is temperature
temperature is the measure of degree of hotness or coldness of a body. measured in kelvin
a characteristic which tells hotness or coldness of a body
babar
Average kinetic energy of an object
Kym
average kinetic energy of the particles in an object
Kym
A measure of the quantity of heat contained in an object which arises from the average kinetic energy of the constituent particles of that object. It can be measured using thermometers. It has a unit of kelvin in the thermodynamic scale and degree Celsius in the Celsius scale.
ibrahim
Mass of air bubble in material medium is negative. why?
a car move 6m. what is the acceleration?
depends how long
Peter
What is the simplest explanation on the difference of principle, law and a theory
how did the value of gravitational constant came give me the explanation
how did the value of gravitational constant 6.67×10°-11Nm2kg-2
Varun
A steel ball is dropped onto a hard floor from a height of 1.50 m and rebounds to a height of 1.45 m. (a) Calculate its velocity just before it strikes the floor.
9.8m/s?
Sqrt(2*1.5m*9.81m/s^2)
Richard
0.5m* mate.
0.05 I meant.
Guess your solution is correct considering the ball fall from 1.5m height initially.
Sqrt(2*1.5m*9.81m/s^2)
Deepak
How can we compare different combinations of capacitors?
find the dimension of acceleration if it's unit is ms-2
lt^-2
b=-2 ,a =1
M^0 L^1T^-2
Sneha
what is botany
Masha
it is a branch of science which deal with the study of plants animals and environment
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what is work
a boy moving with an initial velocity of 2m\s and finally canes to rest with a velocity of 3m\s square at times 10se calculate it acceleration
Sunday
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Abdul
6.6 lol 😁😁
Abdul
show ur work
Sunday
Abdul
Abdul
If the boy is coming to rest then how the hell will his final velocity be 3 it'll be zero
Abdul
re-write the question
Nicolas
men i -10 isn't correct.
Stephen
using v=u + at
Stephen
1/10
Happy
ya..1/10 is very correct..
Stephen
hnn
Happy
how did the value 6.67×10°-11Nm2kg2 came tell me please
Varun
Work is the product of force and distance
Kym
physicist
Michael
what is longitudinal wave
A longitudinal wave is wave which moves parallel or along the direction of propagation.
sahil
longitudinal wave in liquid is square root of bulk of modulus by density of liquid
harishree
Is British mathematical units the same as the United States units?(like inches, cm, ext.)
We use SI units: kg, m etc but the US sometimes refer to inches etc as British units even though we no longer use them.
Richard
Thanks, just what I needed to know.
Nina
What is the advantage of a diffraction grating over a double slit in dispersing light into a spectrum?
yes.
Abdul
Yes
Albert
sure
Ajali
yeap
Sani
yesssss
bilal
hello guys
Ibitayo
when you will ask the question
Ana
bichu
is free energy possible with magnets?
joel
no
Mr.
you could construct an aparatus that might have a slightly higher 'energy profit' than energy used, but you would havw to maintain the machine, and most likely keep it in a vacuum, for no air resistance, and cool it, so chances are quite slim.
Mr.
calculate the force, p, required to just make a 6kg object move along the horizontal surface where the coefficient of friction is 0.25
Gbolahan
Albert
if a man travel 7km 30degree east of North then 10km east find the resultant displacement
11km
Dohn
disagree. Displacement is the hypotenuse length of the final position to the starting position. Find x,y components of each leg of journey to determine final position, then use final components to calculate the displacement.
Daniel
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James