Beer and Johnston 6th edition, 11-16

A particle starts from rest at the origin and is given an acceleration a = k/(x+4)
2
, where k is a constant. Knowing
that the velocity of the particle is 4 m/sec when x = 8 m. Determine (a) the value of k, (b) the position of the
particle when v = 4.5 m/sec, (c) the maximum velocity of the particle
Solution : The problem here is that we are given acceleration as a function of position, x. Thus we cannot
directly solve the governing differential equation, eqn (1), by simply collecting variables and integrating.
a
t
v
d
d
=
k
x 4 + ( )
2
= eqn (1.)
NOTE 1 : IT IS NOT CORRECT TO THINK OF
k
x 4 + ( )
2
AS
x
v
d
d

,

NOTE 2: acceleration is ALWAYS
dv
dt
NOTE 3: velocity is ALWAYS
dx
dt
In an attempt to modify the governing differential equation into a solvable form, rewrite the acceleration in
terms of v and x using the chain rule for derivatives. If you don't know about, or remember, the chain rule now
is the time to look it up
t
v
d
d x
v
d
d

,
t
x
d
d

,
=
x
v
d
d

,
v =
Now we can write the differential equation in a form we can solve because we can separate variables
x
v
d
d

,
v
k
x 4 + ( )
2
= a =
cross multiply and integrate
vo
v
v v

d
xo
x
x a x ( )

d =
At this point we see that if we have acceleration as a function of x we can integrate both
sides to get velocity as a function of x
vo
v
v v

d
xo
x
x
k
x 4 + ( )
2

(
(

d =
1
x
1
x 4 m + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 m + ( )
k
1
2
v
o
2
+
2
lim

6
m
2
sec
2

,
1
2

,
2.449
We can take the limit as x approaches infinity to see what the maximum velocity is:
v
1
x 4 + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 + ( )
k
1
2
v
o
2
+
2
=
1
2
v
2

1
2
v
o
2

1
x 4 + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 + ( )
k =
v 4.5
m
sec
:
b) the position of the particle when v = 4.5 m/sec
k 48 m
3
s
-2

k
1
2
v
2
v
o
2
( ) x 4 m + ( )
x
o
4 m + ( )
x
o
x + ( )
:
note that we have added dimensions (m) to the
quantity "4" to make the expression
dimensionally consistent. Otherwise Mathcad
would give an error "dimensions not consistent".
x 8 m : v 4
m
sec
: x
o
0 m : v
o
0
m
sec
:
Particle starts from rest at the origin, x
o
= 0 and v
o
= 0. Velocity, v is 4 m/sec when x = 8 m.
k
1
2
v
2
v
o
2
( ) x 4 + ( )
x
o
4 + ( )
x
o
x + ( )
=
1
2
v
2

1
2
v
o
2

1
x 4 + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 + ( )
k =
solve the resulting expression for k and use given information to evaluate k
2
Solve the integrated form of the equation for x. Divide out units since the equations are not dimensionally
consistent. We could also simply not use units but I don't like this option. Another option would be to simply
give units of feet to the "4"s in the denominators on the right hand side of the equation.
x 2
2
v
m
sec

,
2

x
o
m
8
v
m
sec

,
2
+ 2
v
o
m
sec

,
2

x
o
m
8
v
o
m
sec

,
2

k
m
3
sec
2
x
o
m
+

1
1
1
1
]
v
m
sec

,
2

x
o
m
4
v
m
sec

,
2

v
o
m
sec

,
2
x
o
m
+ 4
v
o
m
sec

,
2
+ 2
k
m
3
sec
2
+

1
1
1
1
]
m :
x 21.6m
(c) Find the maximum velocity of the particle. I chose a rather practical approach here which is simply to plot v
as a function of position, x. We can also look at the expression and see that as x gets large:
We can take the limit as x approaches infinity from below to see what the maximum velocity is:
x
1
x 4 m + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 m + ( )
k
1
2
v
o
2
+
2
lim

6
m
2
sec
2

,
1
2

,
2.449
x 0 m 1 m , 1000 m .. :
v x ( )
1
x 4 m + ( )
k
1
x
o
4 m + ( )
k
1
2
v
o
2
+
2
: simply plot the expression for velocity as x gets BIG
3
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Velocity vs Position
v x ( )
m
sec
x
m
Based on observation it appears that the maximum velocity obtained is just over 8 ft/sec. Using the "trace"
function we find it to be 2.449 m/sec. Note that this is the same value as we got by taking the limit.
v
1
8 m
k : v 2.449 ms
-1
v 8.036
ft
sec

trace: click on graph then: Format =====> Graph =======> Trace

4