How Do You Solve Challenging Physics Problems in Nuclear Engineering Interviews?

[beuller34]

Hi all, I have my interviews coming up in a bit to get into the Nuclear Engineering program with the Navy, and on one of the study guides, I was faced with these two simple energy problems, but could not figure them out for the life of me! (I graduated with my B.S. in Chemical Engineering, so I haven't taken physics in about 4 years... haha). They both sound something like this:

1. Given a block on an inclined plane with angle alpha, friction coefficient u, and the block moving with initial speed vo up the block. Draw the free body diagram, find the acceleration of the block, and determine how far the block will travel up the ramp before stopping.

2. You are given a cannon stuck at a 45 degree angle with the ground. You are 10m above the spot you want to hit and 1000m away. What muzzle velocity do you need to hit the target given a 1kg projectile? Say the projectile is faulty and doesn't explode, how much energy will the projectile have upon hitting the ground?

Any help on these would be greatly appreciated... Thank you!

 

[Naty1]

Just open any introductory physics text...studying these two problems will not give you the broad based physics you'll need for the next two questions...