Chapter 12, Problem 89GP

A steel rod of radius R = 15 cm and length ℓ₀, stands upright on a firm surface. A 65-kg man climbs atop the rod. (a) Determine the percent decrease in the rod’s length. (b) When a metal is compressed, each atom throughout its bulk moves closer to its neighboring atom by exactly the same fractional amount. If iron atoms in steel are normally 2.0 × 10⁻¹⁰ m apart, by what distance did this interatomic spacing have to change in order to produce the normal force required to support the man? [Note: Neighboring atoms repel each other, and this repulsion accounts for the observed normal force.]