Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/section-c/c13/solution
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 Section C C13 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
In irrotational flow, the velocity has a velocity potential locally, and globally in a simply connected flow domain. incompressibility then gives . For a sphere moving at speed along through fluid at rest far away, the potential of a translating sphere is a decaying axisymmetric dipole. Its solution and its impermeability condition giveThese are laboratory fluid velocities expressed relative to a moving origin. A velocity field measured in the sphere-rest frame instead requires adding to the potential.
The vector identity printed in the PDF has its signs reversed. The product rule gives the consistent identity . With outward normal of the exterior fluid equal to at the sphere, the divergence theorem yieldsThe integral at infinity vanishes. HenceThis added mass of a sphere is half the displaced fluid mass. For a spring of unchanged stiffness, buoyancy only shifts the static equilibrium. Its oscillation frequency with fluid added mass isFor a small-angle simple pendulum, buoyancy also reduces restoring torque from to , while the inertia is . ThusThe downward equilibrium is stable only for . The ideal results assume unbounded fluid, negligible viscosity, small excursions, and no important free-surface or container corrections.
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