A fan has four identical, symmetrically placed blades. The blades are rotating clockwise at twenty revolutions per second. A) What is the smallest time interval between stroboscope flashes that will make the fan blades appear motionless?

B) What is the highest frequency (in flashes per second) at which a stroboscope will make the

fan blades appear to stand still? Show your calculation.

C) The same questions as (a) and (b), but someone has put a yellow dot on one blade, and now you want the yellow dot to appear to be standing still. Explain, and show your calculation.

D) Now the stroboscope is set for nineteen flashes per second, and the yellow dot appears to be slowly rotating. Which direction does it appear to rotate, clockwise or counterclockwise? Explain, and show your calculation.

E) The same as (d), but the stroboscope is set for twenty-one flashes per second. Explain, and show your calculation.

A) t = 1.249 10⁻² s, B)  f = 80 Hz, C) f = 20 Hz,

D)  slowly advancing an angle of approximately    Δθ = 0.05 rad each flash

E) In each flash it seems to go backward an angle of Δθ = -0.05 rad

Explanation:

A) To make it appear that the blades are immobile, it implies that every time the light turns on, a blade should be in the same position, therefore, as we have 4 blades, they must rotate an angle of 2π/4,  

         θ = π / 2  

         θ = 1.57 rad  

taking the angle let's use the endowment kinematics relations  

          θ = w₀ t + ½ α t²  

in general the fans rotate at constant speed α= 0  

         θ = w₀ t  

         t = θ / w₀  

let's reduce the magnitudes to the SI system  

        w₀ = 20 rev / s (2π rad / 1rev) = 125.66 rad / s  

let's calculate  

        t = 1.57 / 125.66  

        t = 1.249 10⁻² s  

B) the fastest speed for the blades to rotate is when one blade of a complete turn , we use the relationship between the fecuance and the period  

        f = 1 / T  

        f = 1 / 1.25 10⁻²  

       f = 80 Hz

C) we have two possibilities:  

* a yellow dot is placed on each sheet  

In this case the angular velocity of the blade is the same at all points, therefore the results obtained should not change

* a yellow dot is placed on a single sheet.  

Here for the point to remain fixed the angle of rotation must be

       θ= 2π rad  

the time is  

       t = 2π / 125.66  

       t = 5 10⁻² s  

the maximum frequency is  

      f = 1/5 10⁻²  

      f = 20 Hz

D) The copy strobe rotates at f = 19 Hz, the time between each flash is  

      t = 1/19  

      t = 5.26 10⁻² s  

this time is higher, so the angle turned is large  

       θ = w t  

       θ = 125.66 5.26 10⁻²  

       θ = 6.61 rad  

the relationship between this angle and the angle of a circle is  

θ = 1,052

We can see that it is this time the blade rotates 1 complete turns, for this the position of the blade changes us, for the other 0.052 rad the blade rotates a little more than the circumference therefore it seems that it is slowly advancing an angle of approximately  

         Δθ = 0.05 rad each flash  

E) in this case changes the flash speed  

       t = 1/21  

       t = 4.76 10⁻² s  

the angle rotated is  

      θ = 125.66 4.76 10⁻²  

      θ = 5.984 rad  

      θ / 2π = 0.95  

in that case, the blade did not complete the turn, therefore in each flash it seems to go backward an angle

Δθ = -0.05 rad

a lot of it means it can be "burned" for energy and sold at one price. if it is scarce, the price will go up