A wood block, after being given a starting push, slides down a wood ramp at a constant speed. What is the angle of the ramp above horizontal?
The fact that there aren't any numbers involved here and a certain angle is required confuses me. I know it involves Newton's second law but don't we at least need to know weight of the block?
You don't need to know the mass of the block, but you DO need to know the kinetic coefficient of friction, Uk.
They should have provided a numerical value for Uk, unless they want the angle expressed in terms of Uk
The angle of the ramp is tan^-1(Uk)
The coefficient of friction for wood sliding on wood depends upon the smoothness and wetness of the surfaces. You can't just "look it up"
thank you for helping but this is exactly my problem. That is all the information given and we have to fill in a value and units blank. When i have countlessly tried to put in tangent in any way possible, a message pops up: "Use either an integer, decimal number, or scientific notation for the numeric portion of your answer. Do not use calculations or functions." I'm at my wits end with this problem
The problem is not with you, it is with the course you are taking. Whoever is responsible for the question or the course content should not be teaching.
You cannot come up with numbers to physics questions without numerical inputs
It's the homework system--it's all online. I can figure out the questions with numbers but this one has me stumped. Thanks anyways, maybe there's a glitch in the system or something...
kir
To determine the angle of the ramp above horizontal, we need to consider the forces acting on the wood block. In this scenario, the block is sliding down the ramp at a constant speed, which means the forces must be balanced. There are two main forces involved: the gravitational force pulling the block downward (its weight) and the normal force exerted by the ramp.
To start, let's consider the force of gravity acting on the block. Yes, you are correct that we need to know the weight of the block, as weight depends on the mass of the block and the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s^2 on Earth). Once you know the weight, you can determine the force of gravity acting on the block.
Next, the block experiences a normal force from the ramp. The normal force is the force exerted by the ramp perpendicular to its surface and acts to counterbalance the downward force of gravity. Since the block is moving at a constant speed, we can conclude that the normal force is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the weight of the block.
With these two forces balanced, we can now analyze the forces along the ramp. The weight of the block can be broken down into two components: one parallel to the ramp and one perpendicular to the ramp. The perpendicular component is counteracted by the normal force, leaving only the component parallel to the ramp.
Now, this parallel component of the weight can be related to the static friction between the block and the ramp. The static friction acts parallel to the ramp in the opposite direction, allowing the block to maintain a constant speed.
Since the block is sliding down the ramp at a constant speed, we can conclude that the static friction force is equal to the parallel component of the weight. By applying Newton's second law (F = m*a), where "F" is the frictional force and "a" is the acceleration (which is zero in this case), we can determine the relationship between the weight and the angle of the ramp.
By rearranging the equation and substituting in the magnitude of the parallel component of the weight (which is equal to the force of static friction), we can solve for the angle of the ramp above horizontal.
Now, without specific numerical values for the weight or mass of the block, it's not possible to obtain an exact angle. However, this explanation outlines the general method for determining the angle of the ramp using Newton's second law, providing the necessary steps to solve the problem once the relevant values are known.