4.3 Elasticity: stress and strain  (Page 8/15)

The elastic properties of the arteries are essential for blood flow. Explain the importance of this in terms of the characteristics of the flow of blood (pulsating or continuous).

What are you feeling when you feel your pulse? Measure your pulse rate for 10 s and for 1 min. Is there a factor of 6 difference?

Examine different types of shoes, including sports shoes and thongs. In terms of physics, why are the bottom surfaces designed as they are? What differences will dry and wet conditions make for these surfaces?

Would you expect your height to be different depending upon the time of day? Why or why not?

Why can a squirrel jump from a tree branch to the ground and run away undamaged, while a human could break a bone in such a fall?

Explain why pregnant women often suffer from back strain late in their pregnancy.

An old carpenter’s trick to keep nails from bending when they are pounded into hard materials is to grip the center of the nail firmly with pliers. Why does this help?

When a glass bottle full of vinegar warms up, both the vinegar and the glass expand, but vinegar expands significantly more with temperature than glass. The bottle will break if it was filled to its tightly capped lid. Explain why, and also explain how a pocket of air above the vinegar would prevent the break. (This is the function of the air above liquids in glass containers.)

During a circus act, one performer swings upside down hanging from a trapeze holding another, also upside-down, performer by the legs. If the upward force on the lower performer is three times her weight, how much do the bones (the femurs) in her upper legs stretch? You may assume each is equivalent to a uniform rod 35.0 cm long and 1.80 cm in radius. Her mass is 60.0 kg.

During a wrestling match, a 150 kg wrestler briefly stands on one hand during a maneuver designed to perplex his already moribund adversary. By how much does the upper arm bone shorten in length? The bone can be represented by a uniform rod 38.0 cm in length and 2.10 cm in radius.

(a) The “lead” in pencils is a graphite composition with a Young’s modulus of about $1\times {\text{10}}^9\text{N}/{\text{m}}^2$ . Calculate the change in length of the lead in an automatic pencil if you tap it straight into the pencil with a force of 4.0 N. The lead is 0.50 mm in diameter and 60 mm long. (b) Is the answer reasonable? That is, does it seem to be consistent with what you have observed when using pencils?

TV broadcast antennas are the tallest artificial structures on Earth. In 1987, a 72.0-kg physicist placed himself and 400 kg of equipment at the top of one 610-m high antenna to perform gravity experiments. By how much was the antenna compressed, if we consider it to be equivalent to a steel cylinder 0.150 m in radius?

(a) By how much does a 65.0-kg mountain climber stretch her 0.800-cm diameter nylon rope when she hangs 35.0 m below a rock outcropping? (b) Does the answer seem to be consistent with what you have observed for nylon ropes? Would it make sense if the rope were actually a bungee cord?