Examples, exercises and solutions - Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity for Starters

Updated: 20 Jul 2026

Worked Examples¶

Slowing a mass down¶

We continue with the worked example from chapter 2: a mass, $m$ , has initial velocity $v_0$ . From $t=0$ onwards a force $F$ (with magnitude $\mu mg$ , $\mu >0$ ) is acting on $m$ , slowing it down. Eventually, $m$ will come to a stand still. The problem is 1-dimensional.

How much work has $F$ done?

Interpret the problem

Develop the solution

Evaluate the solution

Assess the solution

First we make a sketch and draw what is relevant for this problem. We can use the same figure as used in chapter 2.

We conclude our interpret-phase with our idea on how to approach this problem:

the force is a friction force, hence it is not conservative.
work and change of kinetic energy are related: $W_{12} = E_{kin,2} - E_{kin,1}$
we do know the velocity of $m$ at the beginning and at the end: $v_0$ and 0, respectively.

Is friction a conservative force?¶

As a second example: let us investigate of the friction force, $F = - \mu mg$ , of the above example a conservative force is or not.

Interpret the problem

Develop and Evaluate the solution

Assess the solution

Again, we start with a sketch and draw what is relevant for this problem. We can use a similar figure as above, but with even less detail.

As we deal with a 1-dimensional problem, vector arrows above $F$ , $v$ or $x$ are not needed. But don’t be deceived: when dealing with work we have to evaluate an inner product and even in a 1-dimensional case quantities like force have direction.

We can proceed via different directions:

find a potential or show that this doesn’t exist;
show that $\oint \vec{F}\cdot d\vec{r} = 0$ always or find at least one closed path for which the work is non-zero.

We opt for the second approach: find one path from $x=x_1$ to $x=x_1$ for which $\int_{x_1}^{x_1} F dx \neq 0$ .

Cycling in a force field¶

The professor likes to cycle in a force field during his break. The force field is given by: $F = y \hat{x}$ . As he has to return for his next lecture, he cycles in a closed loop. He moves from (0,0) to (1,0) to (1,1) to (0,1) to (0,0), or the other way around. Given that he has to have enough energy to educate the students, he wonders: how much work do I do during the ride and does that differ when I go clockwise?

Interpret the problem

Develop the solution

Evaluate the solution

Assess the solution

Let’s first make a sketch of the situation. In this case we need to get some idea of the force field and the path. We can do that by plotting some vectors. This can be done by hand, but also by using Python:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


def plot_vector_field(F, xlim=(-.5, 1.5), ylim=(-.5, 1.5), N=20, scale=None):
    x = np.linspace(xlim[0], xlim[1], N)
    y = np.linspace(ylim[0], ylim[1], N)
    X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)

    Fx, Fy = F(X, Y)

    plt.figure(figsize=(5, 5))
    plt.quiver(X, Y, Fx, Fy, scale=scale)
    
    plt.arrow(1, 0, 0, .9, head_width=0.1, head_length=0.1, fc='red', ec='red', linewidth=2)
    plt.arrow(0, 1, 0, -.9, head_width=0.1, head_length=0.1, fc='red', ec='red', linewidth=2)
    plt.arrow(0, 0, .9, 0, head_width=0.1, head_length=0.1, fc='red', ec='red', linewidth=2)
    plt.arrow(1, 1, -.9, 0, head_width=0.1, head_length=0.1, fc='red', ec='red', linewidth=2)

    plt.xlabel("x")
    plt.ylabel("y")
    plt.xlim(xlim)
    plt.ylim(ylim)
    # plt.savefig("../images/ch3_ex_force_field.svg") 
    plt.show()

def F(x, y):
    return y, 0

plot_vector_field(F)

def F(x, y):
    return y, 0

plot_vector_field(F)

the force field plot with arrows directed in the x direction with length proportional to y. — The force field that the professor is cycling in.

Exercise set 1¶

%pip install ipywidgets
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import ipywidgets as widgets
from ipywidgets import interact

# --- Parameters ---
x0 = 0.0
t_stop = 2.0
dt = 0.02
t = np.arange(0, t_stop + dt, dt)

def run_animation(v0, F, m):
    # --- Derived motion ---
    x = x0 + v0 * t + 0.5 * F / m * t**2
    v = v0 + F / m * t
    E_kin = 0.5 * m * v**2
    W = F * (x - x0)

    # --- Plot setup ---
    plt.clf()
    
    fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 1, figsize=(15, 10))
    
    ax_position = axs[0]
    ax_ekin = axs[1]

    ax_position.plot(t,x,'k-')
    ax_position.set_xlim(0, t_stop)
    ax_position.set_ylim(min(x)-1, max(x)+1)
    ax_position.set_title("Position vs Time")
    ax_position.set_ylabel('$x$(m)')

    ax_ekin.plot(t,E_kin,'k-',label='$E_{kin}$')
    ax_ekin.plot(t,W,'r-',label='$W$')
    ax_ekin.set_xlim(0, t_stop)
    ax_ekin.set_ylim(0, max(E_kin)*1.1)
    ax_ekin.set_title("Kinetic Energy vs Time")
    ax_ekin.set_ylabel('$E$(J)')
    

    
# --- Interact control panel ---
interact(run_animation,
         v0=widgets.FloatSlider(min=0, max=10, step=0.5, value=5.0, description="v₀ (m/s)"),
         F=widgets.FloatSlider(min=-5, max=5, step=0.5, value=6.5, description="F (N)"),
         m=widgets.FloatSlider(min=0.5, max=5.0, step=0.1, value=1.0, description="m (kg)"))

Answers set 1¶

Solution to Exercise 1

a. Show $\vec{\nabla} \times m\vec{g} = 0$
$\vec{\nabla} \times m\vec{g} = 0$ ? How to compute it? For Cartesian coordinates there is an easy to remember rule:

\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{F} = \begin{vmatrix}\hat{x}&\hat{y}&\hat{z}\\\frac{\partial}{\partial x}&\frac{\partial}{\partial y}&\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\\F_x&F_y&F_z\end{vmatrix}

(12)

If we chose our coordinates such that $\vec{g} = -g \hat{z}$ we get:

\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{F}_g = \begin{vmatrix}\hat{x}&\hat{y}&\hat{z}\\\frac{\partial}{\partial x}&\frac{\partial}{\partial y}&\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\\0&0& -mg\end{vmatrix} = 0

(13)

Thus $\vec{F}_g$ is conservative.

b. Find a $V$ that satisfies $-m\vec{g} = -\vec{\nabla} V$
Does $-m\vec{g} = -\vec{\nabla} V$ have a solution for V? Let’s try, using the same coordinates as above.

\begin{split} -\vec{\nabla}V &= - m\vec{g} \Rightarrow \\ \frac{\partial V}{\partial x} &= 0 \rightarrow V(x,y,z) = f(y,z) \\ \frac{\partial V}{\partial y} &= 0 \rightarrow V(x,y,z) = g(x,z) \\ \frac{\partial V}{\partial z} &= mg \rightarrow V(x,y,z) = mgz + h(x,y) \end{split}

(14)

f,g,h are unknown functions. But all we need to do, is find one $V$ that satisfies $-m\vec{g} = -\vec{\nabla} V$ .

So, if we take $V(x,y,z) = mgz$ we have shown, that gravity in this form is conservative and that we can take $V(x,y,z) = mgz$ for its corresponding potential energy.

By the way: from the first part (curl F = 0), we know that the force is conservative and we know that we could try to find V from

\begin{split} V(x,y,z) &= -\int_{ref} m\vec{g} \cdot d\vec{r} = \int_{ref} mg \hat{z} \cdot d\vec{r} \\ &= \int_{ref} mg dz = mgz + const \end{split}

(15)

Exercise set 2¶

Exercise 12 (Work done dragging a board ^[1] 🌶 🌶)

A uniform board of length $L$ and mass $M$ lies near a boundary that separates two regions. In region 1, the coefficient of kinetic friction between the board and the surface is $\mu_1$ , and in region 2, the coefficient is $\mu_2$ . Our objective is to find the net work $W$ done by friction in pulling the board directly from region 1 to region 2, under the assumption that the board moves at constant velocity.

Suppose that at some point during the process, the right edge of the board is a distance $x$ from the boundary, as shown. When the board is at this position, what is the magnitude of the force of friction acting on the board, assuming that it’s moving to the right? Express your answer in terms of all relevant variables ( $L$ , $M$ , $g$ , $x$ , $\mu_1$ , and $\mu_2$ ).
As we have seen, when the force is not constant, you can determine the work by integrating the force over the displacement, $W = \int F(x) \mathrm{d}x$ . Integrate your answer from (1) to get the net work you need to do to pull the board from region 1 to region 2.

Exercise 14 (🌶 🌶)

A hockey puck ( $m = 160$ gram) is hit and slides over the ice-floor. It starts at an initial velocity of $10 \; \mathrm{m/s}$ . The hockey puck experiences a frictional force from the ice that can be modeled as $-\mu F_g$ with $F_g$ the gravitational force on the puck. The friction force eventually stops the motion of the puck. Then the friction is zero (otherwise it would accelerate the puck from rest to some velocity :smiley: ). Constant $\mu = 0.01$ .

Set up the equation of motion (i.e. N2) for $m$ .
Solve the equation of motion and find the trajectory of the puck.
Calculate the amount of work done by gravity by solving the integral $W_{12} = \int_1^2 \vec{F} \cdot d\vec{r}$ .
Show that the amount of work calculated is indeed equal to the change in kinetic energy.
Solve this exercise using IDEA.

Exercise 17 (Work by a lineair force 🌶)

A point particle of mass $m=2\; \mathrm{kg}$ is at $t=0$ at position $x=0$ . It has initial velocity $v_0$ . From $t=0$ to $t_{stop}=4 \; \mathrm{s}$ it is under the influence of a force $F(x)$ that linearly increases with the position: $F(x) = k x$ with $k>0$ . This is a 1D problem.

The top graph show the position of the particle. The bottom graph shows the Work done on the particle by the force and the kinetic energy of the particle.

Analyse this situation and calculate the work done by the force at any time. Is the work done in this case always sufficient to account for the change in kinetic energy? What does it mean if the work is positive or negative?

Are the red ( $W$ ) line and the green ( $E_{kin}$ ) parallel? What does that mean?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
from IPython.display import HTML

#  Inputs 
x0 = float(input('Initial position (m) from 0 to 10'))        # Initial position (m)
v0 = float(input('Initial velocity (m/s) from -10 to 10'))        # Initial velocity (m/s)
k = float(input('Spring constant (N/m) from 0.1 to 1'))       # Spring constant (N/m)
m = 2.0        # Mass (kg)

#  Derived 
omega = np.sqrt(k / m)
t_stop = 4.0
dt = 0.02
t_values = np.arange(0, t_stop, dt)

#  Analytical solution for x(t) 
C1 = 0.5 * x0 + 0.5 * v0 / omega
C2 = 0.5 * x0 - 0.5 * v0 / omega
x = C1 * np.exp(omega * t_values) + C2 * np.exp(-omega * t_values)

# Velocity is not needed directly as E_kin = total energy - work (from energy conservation)
W = 0.5 * k * (x**2 - x0**2)
v_squared = v0**2 + 2 * W / m
E_kin = 0.5 * m * v_squared

#  Plot setup 
fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(10, 10))
ax_block = axs[0, 0]
ax_pos = axs[1, 0]
ax_ekin = axs[0, 1]
ax_work = axs[1, 1]

# Set axis limits
ax_block.set_xlim(min(x)-1, max(x)+1)
ax_block.set_ylim(-1, 1)
ax_block.set_title("Block motion")
ax_block.set_yticks([])
ax_block.axhline(y=-0.06, color='black', linewidth=5)

ax_pos.set_xlim(0, t_stop)
ax_pos.set_ylim(min(x)-1, max(x)+1)
ax_pos.set_title("Position vs Time")

ax_ekin.set_xlim(0, t_stop)
ax_ekin.set_ylim(0, max(E_kin)*1.1)
ax_ekin.set_title("Kinetic Energy vs Time")

ax_work.set_xlim(0, t_stop)
ax_work.set_ylim(min(W)*1.1, max(W)*1.1)
ax_work.set_title("Work vs Time")

# Artists
block_dot, = ax_block.plot([], [], 'rs', markersize=10)
line_pos, = ax_pos.plot([], [], 'b')
line_ekin, = ax_ekin.plot([], [], 'g')
line_work, = ax_work.plot([], [], 'r')

#  Init 
def init():
    block_dot.set_data([], [])
    line_pos.set_data([], [])
    line_ekin.set_data([], [])
    line_work.set_data([], [])
    return block_dot, line_pos, line_ekin, line_work

#  Update function 
def update(frame):
    t = t_values[:frame]
    block_dot.set_data([x[frame]], [0])
    line_pos.set_data(t, x[:frame])
    line_ekin.set_data(t, E_kin[:frame])
    line_work.set_data(t, W[:frame])
    return block_dot, line_pos, line_ekin, line_work

#  Animation 
ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update, frames=len(t_values),
                    init_func=init, interval=dt*1000, blit=True)

plt.close(fig)  # Prevent double static plot
HTML(ani.to_jshtml())

Answers set 2¶

Footnotes¶

Exercise from Idema, T. (2023). Introduction to particle and continuum mechanics. Idema (2023)
↩↩↩

References¶

Idema, T. (2023). Introduction to particle and continuum mechanics. TU Delft OPEN Publishing. 10.59490/tb.81

3.1 Examples, exercises and solutions

Worked Examples¶

Slowing a mass down¶

Is friction a conservative force?¶

Cycling in a force field¶

Exercise set 1¶

Answers set 1¶

Exercise set 2¶

Answers set 2¶