There are certain ideas and methods essential to know before going to competitive exams like IIT JEE.

Here are the ideas and methods presented for Kinematics.

Special Methods of problems solving in Kinematics

Method 1: Choose the most appropriate frame of reference. You can choose
several ones, and switch between them as needed. Potentially useful frames are
where:
⋆ some bodies are at rest;
⋆ some projections of velocities vanish;
⋆ motion is symmetric
1. A motorboat going downstream overcame a raft at a point A; T = 60 min later it turned back and
after some time passed the raft at a distance l = 6.0 km from the point A. Find the flow velocity
assuming the duty of the engine to be constant. (IRODOV)
How to proceed: Use the frame with respect to which water is at rest that means river banks
are moving. No need to touch even pen or paper.
2. Two smooth slides lie within the same vertical
plane and make angles α to the horizontal (see
the figure). At some moment, two small balls
are released from points A and B and they
start sliding down. It took time t1 for the first
ball that started from point A to reach the
ground; for the second one the time of
descent was t2. At what time was distance between the balls the smallest?

(Estonian Olympiad, Jaan Kalda)

How to proceed: For quick and easy solution, use the free fall frame in which B is at rest.

3. An armored car is moving with speed of 2√2 ms–1 along a straight

road. A soldier aims at his enemy moving perpendicularly to the road
at speed of √2 ms–1. At the instant when he fires the gun, the line
joining shooter and his enemy makes an angle of 450 with the road.
Find the angle with the road at which he should aim to hit his enemy?

Muzzle velocity of arrow is 5ms–1. (given that sin 37° = 3/5). Neglect effect of gravity.

(Adapted from Chinese Olympiad – Jinhui Wang)

How to proceed: Use the frame in which the bullet taker enemy is at rest.
Solution: Let that the enemy is at rest, then the bullet must come to hit him along the line joining
shooter and him i.e at 450 with the road. Also let the shooter aims at him at an angle 𝜽 with the road.
Then the bullet must have following components of velocity with respect to the Enemy E.

Along the road – 5 cos𝜽 + 𝟐√𝟐

Perpendicular to the road – 5 sin𝜽 - √𝟐

Since tan 450 =1 , so both these components will have the same values, equate both of them to get
𝜽 = 𝟖𝟐𝟎 .

Be careful with the problems involving rotating frame: Mistakes are very likely.
4. A is sitting on the edge of a carousel that has a radius of 6 m and is rotating steadily. B is
standing still on the ground at a point that is 12 m from the centre of the carousel. At a
particular instant, B observes A moving directly towards him with a speed of 1 ms-1. With what
speed does A observe B to be moving at that same moment?
Adapted from Chinese Olympiad
How to proceed: This is important to learn how to approach such problems, a question of such
nature has already been asked in IIT JEE. The solutions everywhere is wrong but the answer is
accidentally correct.
Solution:

The frame of reference K is inertial, but frame K′ (i.e. the rotating carousel) is not, and so the Galilean
transformation does not apply. What does it mean that for B (the inertial frame), A is moving towards
him at 1m/s directly towards him i.e. tangential to the carousel but for A, B is not moving towards him
with speed 1m/s towards A simply because A is not the observer of observer of inertial frame and the
results of Galilean transformation I. e. ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑣𝑟𝑒𝑙 = ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑣𝐵 − ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑣𝐴 is not applicable for A.

Then what can we do next to solve this problem?

Since A is moving directly towards B, his position, B in the figure, must lie on the tangent to the carousel
at A’s position A. Thus A, B and C, the centre of the carousel, must form a right-angled triangle. Using
the given geometrical data, it follows that the distance between A and B at the given moment is 6√3 m.
It also follows that the tangential speed of the carousel is 1 m s-1, and that its angular velocity is
1
therefore, 𝜔 = 𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑠 −1 .
6

If A were sitting at the centre of the carousel, he would see the whole world around him rotating with
the same angular speed ω, but in the opposite direction. That means he would observe B standing 12 m
1
away from the centre of the carousel, but moving with a speed of 6 × 12 = 2 ms-1 in a direction
perpendicular to the line joining him to the centre of the carousel. Although A is not sitting at the centre
of the carousel, but at its edge, the same conclusion applies – with a slight change.

B’s velocity in frame K′ can be resolved into two perpendicular components, as shown on the right-hand
side of the figure. The magnitude of the component pointing towards A has the (perhaps expected)
value of 1 m s-1, whereas that of the component perpendicular to this is √3 ms-1 This latter value can be
understood as Ann observing Bob moving at right angles to her line of vision with a speed of

𝜔 × 6√3 m =√3 ms-1 .

Method 2: Using Fermat’s Principle

5. From point A located on a highway (Fig.) one has to get by car
as soon as possible to point B located in the field at a distance
l from the highway. It is known that the car moves in the field
n (>1) times slower than on the highway. At what distance
from point D one must turn off the highway?
(Irodov)
6. We would like to go from point B to point A, which points are both in a forest. In any direction
among the trees we can walk at a speed of u. There is however exactly one straight road
through the forest along which it is easy to go, at a speed of ku, k>1. Point A is on this road, but
point B is not, and the angle between the road and the line segment AB is α. How should we
walk in order to reach point A from B in the shortest time?
(Hungarian Olympiad)
7. A boy lives on the shore OP of a bay MOP (see the
figure). Two shores of the bay make an angle α. The
boy’s house is situated at point A at distance h from the
shore and √ℎ2 + 𝑙 2 from point O. The boy wants to go
fishing to the shore OM. At what distance x from point
O should be the fishing spot, so that it would take as
little time as possible to get there from the house? How
long is this time? The boy moves at velocity v on the
ground and at velocity u when using a boat.
 Estonian Olympiad (Jaan Kalda)

8. A man can row a boat in still water at 3 km/h. He can walk at a speed of 5 km/h on the shore.
The water in the river flows at 2 km/h. If the man rows across the river and walks along the
shore to reach the opposite point on the river bank find the direction with the river flow in
which he should row the boat so that he could reach the opposite shore in the least possible
time. The width of the river is 500 m.
(Adapted from Chinese Olympiad – Jinhui Wang)

Method 3: Use of Basic info - graphs, Geometry, symmetry and Vectors

9. Two cars A and B simultaneously start a race. Velocity v of
the car A varies with time t according to the graph shown in
the figure. It acquires a velocity 50 m/s before t = 100s and
thereafter moves with this speed. Car B runs together with
car A till both acquire a velocity 20 m/s, after this car B
moves with zero acceleration for one second and then
follow the velocity –time profile identical to that of A. In this way, car B acquires the velocity 50
m/s one second after A acquires it. How much more distance does car A cover in first 100 s as
compared to car B?
Adapted from BPHO
How to proceed: The area covered by velocity time graph is the distance traveled.
10. The trajectory of a projectile with initial speed v0 is parabolic in a vacuum. How far is the focus
of this parabola from the launch point?
Adapted from Chinese Olympiad
How to proceed: Use optical property of Parabola. Use of co-ordinate geometry can turn into
a bad solution.
11. What is the minimum value of vertical component of initial velocity that has to be given to a
stone in order to throw it across a sloped roof? The roof has width b, its two edges have heights
a and c.

Adapted from Hungarian Olympiad

 How to proceed: Use Fermat’s principle with optical properties. There are two solutions, the
brute force one is lengthy and hopeless. But using a bit of geometrical optics with mechanical
energy conservation leads to quick and decisive solution.

12. Point-like objects are thrown with an initial speed of v0 in various directions from the top of a
tower of height h. If the air resistance is negligible, what is the maximum distance from the foot
of the tower that they can reach?
Adapted from BAUPC
How to proceed: Use the power of vectors only simplifies the solution, alternatively one can
use the properties of Focus and Directrix and it simplifies the solution even more.

Method 3 -Using differential equations

13. An infinitely stretchable rubber

band has one end nailed to a wall,
while the other end is pulled away
from the wall at the rate of 1
m/s; initially the band is 1 meter
long. A bug on the rubber band,
initially near the wall end, is crawling toward the other end at the rate of 0.001 cm/s.
Will the bug ever reach the other end? If so, when?

Sakharov Problem

How to proceed: There are more than one method but the simplest and the quickest one as follows:
Set up a differential equation for the velocity of the bug for a still standing observer placed at the
wall. You will get a first order first degree linear differential equation.

14. Consider a differential equation of the form

𝑑𝑦
+ 𝑓(𝑥)𝑦 = 𝑔(𝑥)𝑦 𝑛
𝑑𝑥

This is called the Bernoulli’s Equation. Show that the substitution z = y1–n yields an equation that can be
simplified by an integrating factor. Determine the integrating factor.
Adapted from Chinese Olympiad

How to proceed: Use the basic understanding of first order, first degree linear differential equation.

Method 4 – Using Cartesian and polar co-ordinates together

15. A fox is running at a constant velocity v rectilinearly in the x-direction. A dog chases the fox at
instantaneous velocity u (u > v) of constant magnitude and its direction is always pointing from
the instantaneous position of the dog to the instantaneous position of the fox. What is the time
taken for the dog to catch the fox? The initial distance between them is l and the initial position
vector of the fox relative to the dog makes an angle θ0 with the positive x-axis (the dog and the
fox lie on the same plane)
Adapted from Irodov
How to proceed: Well, a natural step to take would be to consider the frame of the dog.
Usually, to ensure that two point particles are coincident, we must check that both their x and
y- coordinates are the same. However, applying this method to this situation would only
generate a pair of integrals that are impossibly difficult to solve for. Instead, we can ensure
that the x and r coordinates of those particles coincide. This is due to the fact that the r
coordinate is not completely dependent on the x-coordinate and is also a function of the y-
coordinate. As such, if the r and x coordinates of two objects are identical; their y coordinates
must also be the same.

Method 5 – Constraints
16. One of two rings with radius r is at rest and the other moves
at velocity v towards the first one. Find how the velocity of
the upper point of intersection depends on a, the distance
between two rings’ centres.
Adapted from Hungarian Olympiad
How to proceed: Using the cm frame is the best option but a still standing frame can also
provide equally good solution. The constraint used is the path constraint.
17. Rings O and O′ are slipping freely along vertical fixed rods AB and
A′B′ (see the figure). Some unstretchable rope has been tied to ring
O and pulled through ring O′. The other end of the rope is fixed to
point A′. At the moment when ∠AOO′ = α, the ring O′ is moving
downwards at velocity v. Find the velocity of the ring O at the same
moment.

Adapted from SS Krotov

How to proceed: Use the rope constraint.

Concept: If one of two vectors is constant and the direction of the other is fixed then the modulus of
their sum is minimal if they form a right-angled triangle.
Proof:

p. A block is pushed onto a conveyor belt. The belt is moving at velocity v0 = 1 m/s, the block’s initial
velocity u0 = 2 m/s is perpendicular to the belt’s velocity. During its subsequent motion, what is the
minimum velocity of the block with respect to the ground? The coefficient of friction is large enough to
prevent the block from falling off the belt.

It’s a great question. Try to solve it.