Recent content by AlephNumbers

What a great diagram. I'm sorry, did you want some help? You might want to mosey on over to the homework rules thread and take a gander. A complete problem statement would also be helpful.

Try drawing a force diagram for both the person on the crate and the crate and try summing your forces for each individually. The answers should become clear!Also, this belongs in introductory physics.

You substituted 2v1 for v2.

Wikipedia has a surprisingly easy to understand explanation. I don't think I could explain to you better myself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass#Exceptions_or_caveats_to_mass.2Fmatter_conservation

The principle of conservation of matter is different from conservation of mass.

I think it is pretty well known what inertia is. This is basically the definition I was taught. Your current attitude towards physics will do you no favors, Spider. I think everyone in this thread knows significantly more physics than you or me. Sometimes you just have to accept some things at...

You are correct. Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Yes, I am wrong. It is just has the minimum speed necessary to retain contact with the loop.

Your solution to the problem using energy says otherwise. If all of the kinetic energy the block has at the bottom of the loop is converted into gravitational potential energy by the time the block is at the top of the loop, then the kinetic energy the block has at the top of the loop is zero...

The sin and cos would be switched. When the block gets to the upper half of the loop the loop, I would flip the circle so that the origin is centered on the top of the loop the loop, and then switch the signs on the terms. The centripetal force at the top of the loop the loop would be the...

Do you want me to elaborate on what your teacher said? If you are interested in solving for the tangential acceleration of the mass when it is at a certain angle with the vertical, then you need to break gravity up into tangential and radial components.

Do you remember the context of the situation in which your teacher made that statement?

The block is not moving in uniform circular motion because the magnitude of the block's speed changes as it moves up the loop the loop; the block's kinetic energy changes as gravity does work on the block. It isn't. Also, you made a sign error in your work with forces. The force of gravity...

That depends. Are you redefining the axis so that Xe is the new zero?

What would you expect to happen if you dropped a mass on the edge of a pan that is connected by a string to the ceiling?