At a local mine, a cave-in has trapped a number of miners. You and some classmates rush to the scene to see how you can help. The trapped miners have been able to reach a point in the mine at the bottom of a tall vertical shaft to the surface, allowing them access to fresh air. But they are in desperate need of fresh water and bandages for injuries. Some rescue workers ask you to help pack a light plastic cylindrical container with bottles of water and bandages. Simply dropping the container into the shaft risks damaging the container and contents and injuring the miners. Tying a rope to the container and lowering it on the end of the rope takes a long time. A quick and relatively safe method is to wrap a lightweight rope around the container. One end of the rope will be secured and the container will be released into the vertical shaft. The container will unroll off the rope like a falling yo-yo. (a) If immediate access to the lightweight bandages is needed due to injuries, so that you want the container to reach the bottom of the shaft in the shortest possible time interval, should you pack the heavy water bottles at the center of the container or near the outer edges? (b) If the medical necessity is not so urgent and, for safety considerations, you want the container to arrive at the bottom of the shaft with the lowest possible speed, should you pack the heavy water bottles at the center of the container or near the outer edges? Assume that the center of mass of the container is at its center.
Fluid Pressure
The term fluid pressure is coined as, the measurement of the force per unit area of a given surface of a closed container. It is a branch of physics that helps to study the properties of fluid under various conditions of force.
Gauge Pressure
Pressure is the physical force acting per unit area on a body; the applied force is perpendicular to the surface of the object per unit area. The air around us at sea level exerts a pressure (atmospheric pressure) of about 14.7 psi but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone as the bodily fluids are constantly pushing outwards with the same force but if one swims down into the ocean a few feet below the surface one can notice the difference, there is increased pressure on the eardrum, this is due to an increase in hydrostatic pressure.
At a local mine, a cave-in has trapped a number of miners. You and some classmates rush to the scene to see how you can help. The trapped miners have been able to reach a point in the mine at the bottom of a tall vertical shaft to the surface, allowing them access to fresh air. But they are in desperate need of fresh water and bandages for injuries. Some rescue workers ask you to help pack a light plastic cylindrical container with bottles of water and bandages. Simply dropping the container into the shaft risks damaging the container and contents and injuring the miners. Tying a rope to the container and lowering it on the end of the rope takes a long time. A quick and relatively safe method is to wrap a lightweight rope around the container. One end of the rope will be secured and the container will be released into the vertical shaft. The container will unroll off the rope like a falling yo-yo. (a) If immediate access to the lightweight bandages is needed due to injuries, so that you want the container to reach the bottom of the shaft in the shortest possible time interval, should you pack the heavy water bottles at the center of the container or near the outer edges? (b) If the medical necessity is not so urgent and, for safety considerations, you want the container to arrive at the bottom of the shaft with the lowest possible speed, should you pack the heavy water bottles at the center of the container or near the outer edges? Assume that the center of mass of the container is at its center.
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