- A company plans to build a new fairground ride. The ride will consist of a capsule that will hold the passengers and the capsule will be attached to a tall tower. The capsule is to be released from rest from a point half way up the tower and then made to oscillate in a vertical line.
The vertical displacement, \(x\) metres, of the top of the capsule below its initial position at time \(t\) seconds is modelled by the differential equation,
$$m \frac { \mathrm {~d} ^ { 2 } x } { \mathrm {~d} t ^ { 2 } } + 4 \frac { \mathrm {~d} x } { \mathrm {~d} t } + x = 200 \cos t , \quad t \geqslant 0$$
where \(m\) is the mass of the capsule including its passengers, in thousands of kilograms.
The maximum permissible weight for the capsule, including its passengers, is 30000 N .
Taking the value of \(g\) to be \(10 \mathrm {~ms} ^ { - 2 }\) and assuming the capsule is at its maximum permissible weight,
- explain why the value of \(m\) is 3
- show that a particular solution to the differential equation is
$$x = 40 \sin t - 20 \cos t$$
- hence find the general solution of the differential equation.
- Using the model, find, to the nearest metre, the vertical distance of the top of the capsule from its initial position, 9 seconds after it is released.