Energy balance in a uniformly rotating frame 2026-10-07
For uniform angular velocity , potential , and additional forces doing no work in the rotating frame,The Coriolis force does no work; the centrifugal potential accounts for the remaining apparent force. This energy is conserved precisely when the potential has no explicit time dependence in the rotating coordinates. An inertial time-independent conservative force need not meet that condition unless its potential is also invariant under the frame's rotation. The balance prevents applying a rotating-frame conservation law to a nonaxisymmetric stationary inertial potential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ib Paper 1 17E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 2 7D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For constant fluid density , steady Euler equations for an inviscid fluid under a conservative force per unit mass read . Here is velocity, pressure and potential per unit mass. Dotting with givesThis is the Bernoulli equation. The constants can differ between streamlines. If density varies, the same derivation for a barotropic fluid replaces by ; constant density is the appropriate water approximation here.
For the draining cone, the radius at height is and the horizontal area is . Both the free surface and the jet are at atmospheric pressure; their gravitational potential difference is approximately . The speed of the descending surface is smaller than the jet speed by the area ratio , so it can be neglected when . The Bernoulli equation then gives Torricelli's law, . Conservation of mass givesHence the leading drainage time of a conical tank isRemoving the tip places the aperture at height of order , and the quasi-steady calculation fails in the last layer of that depth. Integrating down only to changes the displayed leading time by relative order ; replacing the actual head by introduces a larger, but still vanishing, relative correction of order . The formula is the ideal inviscid estimate under the question's stated approximation, not an exact law for the final transient or a real contracted jet.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ia Paper 4 9C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The work done along the trajectory isBy Newton's second law, , soThis is the work-energy theorem: the work equals the change in kinetic energy.
A force is conservative when its work between two points is independent of the path, equivalently when it is the negative gradient of a potential energy. Here a potential with isConservation of energy for givesThus
If , the particle escapes with asymptotic speed ; the graph decreases from to this horizontal asymptote. At the escape velocity , it decreases as and approaches zero only at infinity. If , it reaches the turning pointwhere , then returns on the negative branch of the same curve and oscillates symmetrically about the origin.
Potential function Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A potential function assigns a scalar to each point of a configuration or spatial domain. In mechanics it represents potential energy, and its negative gradient gives the corresponding conservative force.