Find velocity as a function of position x

KiNGGeexD
Messages
317
Reaction score
1
I am trying to find the velocity as a function of position for a particle of mass m that starts from rest and has a force acting on it equal to
F(x)= Fo+cx

My lecturer said that this would be an easy problem to solve but for whatever reason I am having trouble!

I have got as far as to say that

F(x)=m a(x)

So surely a(x)=F(x)/m

Then do I possibly integrate with respect to dx?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
KiNGGeexD said:
I am trying to find the velocity as a function of position for a particle of mass m that starts from rest and has a force acting on it equal to
F(x)= Fo+cx

My lecturer said that this would be an easy problem to solve but for whatever reason I am having trouble!

I have got as far as to say that

F(x)=m a(x)

So surely a(x)=F(x)/m

Then do I possibly integrate with respect to dx?

Integrating adx will not give you a velocity. Integrating adt would but that's not going to lead anywhere. You start by realizing a=dv/dt=(dv/dx)(dx/dt)=(dv/dx)v. If you use that then you get a separable differential equation in the variables v and x. Solve it.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top