MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Physics
8.01

Reading Questions for Week 1 Day 3

Write your name and section on the upper right hand corner of your paper and
hand it in at the start of class that day in the appropriate box on the first table by
the door as you enter 26-152.
Sept 6 W01D3 Kinematics and One Dimension Motion (Emphasis on Differentiation
and Integration)
Reading Assignment: Dourmashkin, Classical Mechanics MIT 8.01 Course Notes,
Chapter 2 Units, Dimensional Analysis, Problem Solving, and Estimation, Section 2.5
Chapter 4 One Dimensional Kinematics, Sections 4.1-4.6
Reading Question One (5 points):
Consider a moving object. Suppose you know that the position x(t) of the object as a
function of time t is given by x(t) = b0 + b3t 3 . (a) Find the x -component of the velocity
vx (t) and the x -component of the acceleration ax (t) of the object as a function of time
t.
Reading Question Two (5 points):
Suppose you know the position and x -component of velocity of an object at time t 0 and
you are given the x -component of the acceleration ax (t) = a0 + a1t , which is a nonconstant function of time t where a0 and a1 are non-zero constant. (i) Describe a
procedure for finding the x -component of velocity vx (t) as a function of time t . (ii)
Describe a procedure for finding the position x(t) as a function of time t . In both cases,
write down any mathematical expression that you may need, and if you introduce
notation explain the meaning of each term. (iii) What are you answers for the special case
that ax is a non-zero constant?