Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ia Paper 4 12A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A coaxial shell of radius and thickness has mass . Integrating squared radius against mass, the moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder about its axis isOn the smooth incline, no tangential contact force produces spin, so the initially stationary cylinder simply slides with acceleration . Therefore .
For rolling without slipping, let be uphill static friction and the downward translational acceleration. Newton's second law, the rotational torque equation, and the contact constraint giveWith , these give and . The rolling-time factor on a straight incline is consequentlyThe required friction is ; the stated no-slip motion presupposes sufficient static friction. At an instantaneously stationary contact point it does no work. Gravitational potential energy is shared between translational and rotational kinetic energy, explaining why rolling accelerates more slowly than the smooth slide.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ia Paper 4 12A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is taken about its symmetry axis. Write its mass density as . A coaxial shell of radius and thickness has mass . ThusA hollow cylinder would have a different moment of inertia; uniform solid density is the intended assumption.
Let measure the centre's displacement uphill from its initial position, and choose signed angular velocity so that uphill rolling without slipping has . Let be the signed contact force uphill. The translation and rotation equations areThe minus sign in the torque equation follows from the chosen rolling sense: uphill contact force opposes the positive spin. Under rolling without slipping, . Eliminating givesUsing and , the no-slip motion and maximum vertical rise areIndeed the centre turns at , reaching , whose vertical component is the boxed height. Conservation of energy independently gives the same answer from initial kinetic energy .
The available static friction is at most . It can supply the required uphill force exactly when . ThereforeInterpret the stated friction magnitude as limiting static friction and as kinetic friction during slip, with the same coefficient. Take , . In the slipping regime the contact point moves downhill relative to the slope, so kinetic friction acts uphill. To verify this direction rather than assume it unchecked, solve with . Define . The result isThe centre's speed is , with the sign of specifying ascent or descent. The contact point's relative velocity isThus the assumed uphill kinetic friction is consistent throughout both ascent and descent, including when the centre's velocity changes sign. There is no later return to rolling without slipping before reaching the bottom. This is the characteristic slipping solid cylinder on an incline regime.
The centre turns at , givingThe formulas apply up to the positive return time . Substitution into the signed velocity and angular velocity givesThe return spin can have either sign and vanishes at . It reverses when , although the contact point still slips downhill. The unchanged centre speed does not mean that no energy was dissipated: the rotational kinetic energy has decreased. Indeed integrating the frictional power giveswhich agrees with the difference of the initial and final rotational kinetic energies.
The solid cylinder has constant mass density . A thin cylindrical shell of radius and thickness has mass . Its contribution to the axial moment of inertia is . ThereforeThe attached wheels are massless, so they add no moment of inertia. This is the moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder about its central longitudinal axis of rotation.
Interpret as the vertical drop of the cylinder's centre of mass, and initially take the suspended rod to be vertical. The moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is . Before impact, rolling without slipping gives , so conservation of mechanical energy givesUse the usual instantaneous smooth elastic collision model: the horizontal impact impulse passes through the cylinder's centre of mass, and the floor supplies negligible tangential impulse during impact. The cylinder's angular velocity is then unchanged during impact; its rotational kinetic energy does not transfer to the bob. The rod supplies no horizontal impulse when vertical. If and are the signed cylinder and bob velocities immediately afterwards, conservation of momentum and the unit coefficient of restitution giveDuring the subsequent simple pendulum swing, conservation of mechanical energy givesThe cylinder generally slips immediately after this impact, which is consistent with imposing rolling without slipping only on the descent.
Impact convention matters. The floor-impulse dependence of a rolling-cylinder collision gives a different answer if a different constraint is imposed. If instead the floor enforces rolling without slipping throughout the impulsive collision, it supplies a nonzero horizontal impulse. The cylinder's effective translational mass is then . Writing for the impulse delivered to the bob gives , and . Hence and , giving . The original wording specifies the descent constraint but does not specify an impulsive floor-friction law; the first boxed value uses the smooth-impact convention.
Axis theorems. The parallel axis theorem stateswhere is the moment of inertia about an axis through the centre of mass, is about a parallel axis, is the body's total mass, and is the perpendicular separation of the axes. Expanding proves the result because at the centre of mass. The perpendicular axis theorem applies to a planar lamina in the plane:All three axes meet at the same point, lie in the lamina and is normal to it; the identity follows from being the squared distance to the axis. It is not a theorem for an arbitrary three-dimensional body.
Cylinder integrals. Put the cylinder's midpoint at and its symmetry axis along . Its uniform mass density is . The transverse moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder about the axis isEquivalently each thin circular slice has diametral moment of inertia , by the perpendicular axis theorem and symmetry, and shifting it by adds . The parallel axis theorem then gives the transverse end-axis moment of inertia:The axial moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is . Equating it to givesHere the source's principal axis means the cylinder's symmetry axis; its transverse centre axes are also principal axes. This equality describes a short cylinder rather than the thin-rod limit.
Hammer dynamics and forces. Treat the compact head as a point mass and neglect its intrinsic moment of inertia. Let be the displacement from downward vertical, and let point along the rod from pivot to head, with in the direction of increasing . DefineThe two external weights and act at distances and from the pivot. The frictionless pivot supplies a reaction but no torque about its axis. The total restoring torque and rotational equation of motion areFor completeness, Newton's second law for the centre of mass gives both components of the pivot force:The negative radial component points towards the pivot. These follow from the centre of mass acceleration and the total weight . They specify the external forces even when the oscillation is not small.
With the small-angle approximation, , this is simple harmonic motion. The physical pendulum has small-amplitude oscillation periodFor release from a finite amplitude , conservation of mechanical energy instead gives . Integrating a quarter-cycle gives the exact oscillation periodwhere is the complete elliptic integral of the first kind; recovers .
For and , compare with the simple pendulum value :For small oscillations, the hammer's oscillation period is about shorter. The extra rod weight adds restoring torque proportionately faster than it adds pivot moment of inertia.
Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2019 2 Solution 2026-10-18
Constraint and example. A holonomic constraint can be written , with no irreducible dependence on velocities. A velocity relation is holonomic if it integrates to such an equation. For example, a particle constrained to a stationary circle satisfies , reducing its two Cartesian degrees of freedom to one angle. A nonholonomic constraint cannot be integrated in this way.
Kinematics and kinetic energy. Set . In the plane of the original diagram, choose the orbital angle positive counterclockwise from vertically downward. The marked radius of the inner cylinder then has absolute orientation measured from the same downward direction. Its signed spin angular velocity is , whileThe moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is . Applying the kinetic energy decomposition about the center of mass gives
No slip. With tangential unit vector , the inner contact point has velocity . The fixed wall requires this to vanish. HenceBecause are constant, integration giveswhere the integration constant is zero with the marked-dot reference in the diagram and continuously unwrapped angles. This is a holonomic constraint, even though it was first obtained from a condition on velocities.
Oscillations. The gravitational potential energy above the lowest position is . Eliminating gives the reduced LagrangianThe Euler-Lagrange equation becomesThus the bottom is a stable equilibrium, and for there is simple harmonic motion, withThe extra rotational kinetic energy reduces the frequency compared with a particle sliding without friction along the same circular path. The small oscillations inside a circular cylinder formula applies with inertia ratio .
Friction and energy. Let be the signed tangential contact force in the direction. Applying Newton's second law to translation and the torque equation to rotation givesUsing the rolling without slipping condition yieldsExcept at special instants, static friction is needed to produce the spin acceleration. There is no sliding at the contact point, whose instantaneous velocity is zero; therefore this force does no total work. Its translational and rotational powers cancel: . The stationary normal reaction likewise does no work. With a rigid wall, adequate static friction, and no rolling resistance, conservation of energy gives
Angular momentum. The cylinder's spin angular momentum is generally not conserved because the contact friction exerts a torque about its center of mass. About the fixed outer-cylinder center , the angular momentum decomposition about the centre of mass givesGravity and friction exert the external torqueThus the rolling cylinder does not generally conserve angular momentum, although it conserves mechanical energy. There is a special geometric cancellation at : then and its torque vanish identically for this planar motion. Angular momentum of a larger isolated system including the wall and Earth is a separate conservation statement.
Scope of the holonomic reduction. The integrated constraint is exact at every angle for planar rolling without slipping with sustained contact; it is not restricted to small oscillations. Completing a full turn requires tracking angle winding rather than reducing each angle separately modulo . This global bookkeeping does not make the local velocity relation nonintegrable.
However, arbitrary initial conditions need not sustain this ideal rolling motion. The inward normal reaction and the required friction areContact requires , and a finite coefficient of static friction requires . If either fails, the cylinder detaches or slips and the one-coordinate rolling Lagrangian no longer applies. Slipping contact allows and to be independent; detachment removes the fixed center-distance constraint. These changes alone do not establish a nonholonomic constraint. Allowing general three-dimensional reorientation can introduce nonintegrable rolling constraints, but that motion is outside the diagram's two-angle planar model. Thus the stated planar rolling constraint is holonomic throughout its regime of validity; it cannot be imposed on every physically possible motion.