Problem Set – 4A

(Relative motion)

1. A man walking on a road with a velocity of 2m/s encounters rain falling vertically with a velocity of 6m/s
with respect to an observer at rest on the ground. Compute the angle with vertical in which he should held his
umbrella. [tan-1 1/3]
0
2. On a windless rainy day it is observed that rain is falling at an angle of 76 with the vertical to a moving car. If
the average terminal velocity of the rain drops is 15 km/hr, how fast was the car moving? [60 km/hr]
3. A man can swim in still water at a speed of 4 km/hr. He wants to cross a river that flows at 2 km/hr and
reaches the point directly opposite to his starting point. (a) In which direction should he try to swim ? (b) How
much time will he take to cross the river if the river is 500 m wide? [sinθ =1/2, 0,144 hrs]
4. An aircraft flies at 400 km/hr in still air. A wind of 200√2 km/hr is flowing from the south. The pilot wishes to
travel from A to B (northeast of A). Find the direction he must steer and time of his journey if AB = 1000 km.
[ 750 east of north; 1 hour 50 min]
5. The compass of an aeroplane indicates that it is headed due north and its air speed indicator shows that the
flying speed of the plane (its speed in still air) is 120 km/hr. If there is a wind of 50 km/hr from west to east,
what is the velocity of the plane with respect to the ground? In what direction should the pilot heads in order
to travel due north? What will then be the velocity of the plane? [130 km/hr; 24.60 W of N, 109 km/hr]
6. To a person going towards east in a car with a velocity of 25 km/hr, a train appears to move towards north
with a velocity of 25/√3 km/hr. What is the actual velocity of the train? [ 50 km/hr]
7. A beautiful girl is going eastward with a velocity of 4 km/hr. The wind appears to blow directly from the
north. She doubles her speed and the wind seems to come from north east. What is the actual velocity of the
wind? [ 4√2 km/hr towards S-E]
8. Rain water is falling vertically downwards with a velocity V. When the velocity of the wind is zero, water is
collected at a rate R. What will be the rate of collection of water in the same vessel when the wind starts
blowing horizontally at a speed u. [R]
9. The ships are 10 km apart on a line running south to north. The one further north is steaming west at 20 km/hr.
The other is steaming north at 20 km/hr. What is their distance of closest approach? How long do they take to
reach it? [15 min]
10. Two particles are initially located at P and Q separated by a distance d. They starts moving in such a way that
the velocity u of Q is always along the horizontal and v of P is always directed towards Q. v is initially
perpendicular to u. Determine the time when the two particles meet. [vd/(v2-u2)]
11. A man crosses a river in a boat. If he crosses the river in minimum time he takes 10 min with a drift 120 m. If
he crosses the river taking shortest path, he takes 12.5 min, find (a) width of the river, (b) velocity of the
boat with respect to water (c) speed of the water current. [200m;20 m/min; 12 m/min]
12. Rain drops fall vertically at a speed of 20 m/s. At what angle do they fall on the wind screen of a car moving
with a velocity of 15m/s if the wind screen is inclined at an angle of 230 to the vertical?(cot-14/3 = 370) [600]
13. A motorboat going downstream overcomes a raft at a point A. At t = 60 min later, it turned back and after
some time passed the raft at a distance l = 6.0 km from the point A. Find the flow velocity assuming the duty
of the engine to be constant. [ 3 km/hr]
14. Six particles situated at the corners of a regular hexagon of side ‘a’ moves at a constant speed v. Each particle
maintains a direction towards the particle at the next corner. Calculate the time the particle will take to meet
each other. [ 2a/v]
15. A swimmer wishes to cross a 500 m wide river flowing at 5 km/hr. His speed with respect to water is 3 km/hr.
(a) If he heads in a direction making an angle θ with the flow, find the time he takes to cross the river.
(b) Find the shortest possible time to cross the river. [10 min/sinθ; 10 min]
16. In the above problem, if the man has to reach the other shore at the point directly opposite to his starting point.
If he reaches the other share somewhere else, he has to walk down to this point. Find the minimum distance
that he has to walk. [2/3 km]
17. In a harbor, wind is blowing at the speed of 72 km/hr and the flag on the mast of a boat, anchored in the
harbor flutter along N-E direction. If the boat starts moving at a speed of 51 km/hr to the north, what is the
direction of the flag on the mast of the boat? [α = tan-1 =450]
18. Consider a collection of a large number of particles each with speed v. The direction of velocity is randomly
distributed in the collection. Show that the magnitude of the relative velocity between a pair of particles
arranged over all pairs in the collection is greater than v. [1.27 v]