Oscillations Car carrying four people find how much body rises

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves a car with a specific mass and additional weight from passengers, traversing a rough road that induces oscillations in its suspension system. The objective is to determine how much the car body rises when the weight of the passengers is removed.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to calculate the natural frequency of the car and the spring constant using the mass of the car and passengers, but expresses uncertainty about their results. Some participants question the accuracy of unit conversions, particularly from km/h to m/s, and suggest rechecking these calculations.

Discussion Status

Participants are engaged in clarifying the calculations and addressing potential errors in unit conversions. There is a mix of feedback, with some confirming the original poster's approach while others highlight specific areas for correction. No consensus has been reached regarding the final outcome.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes an acknowledgment of the original poster's first-time use of LaTeX, indicating a potential learning curve in presenting mathematical expressions accurately.

GingerBread27
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A 1175 kg car carrying four 80 kg people travels over a rough "washboard" dirt road with corrugations 4.0 m apart which causes the car to bounce on its spring suspension. The car bounces with maximum amplitude when its speed is 17 km/h. The car now stops, and the four people get out. By how much does the car body rise on its suspension owing to this decrease in weight?

I first tried figuring the natural frequency of the car:

[tex]\omega_o=(2\pi\upsilon)/(\Delta(x))=(2\pi(17km/h)(1hr/60s)/(.004km)[/tex] This gives 445.059 rad/s.

I then tried to figure out k:

[tex]\kappa=(m1+m2)\omega_o^2=((1175 kg+(4*180kg))(445.059rad/s)^2[/tex] This gives 3.75e8.

Finally, I tried finding [tex]\Delta(x)=\Delta(F)/\kappa=(m_2*g)/(\kappa)=((180 kg*4)(9.8m/s^2))/(3.75*10^8)[/tex]This gives 1.8e-5 m, or .00188 cm, this is wrong, where did I go wrong? Help!

PS This is the first time I use Latex so if it looks odd I'm sorry!
 
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your conversion for the first part seems to be off... recheck it... and make sure you convert to meter seconds... but you're on the right track
 
i just solved my homework problem with your equations and it worked. the only problem with your method is your unit conversions: to go from km/h to m/s you multiply by 1000/(60^2)
 

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