1.

Let (a, b, 0), (0, b, c) and (a, 0, c) be the cartesian coordinates of them vertices A,
B and C respectively of a triangle. Forces of magnitude and direction equal to 4.
BC , AC and 3BA act along the sides of the triangle.
(a) Find the resultant of the forces and its moment about the origin.
(b) Find the coordinates of the point where the line of action of the resultant
intersects the X-Y plane.

2.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows a smooth rectangular horizontal plane surrounded by smooth

walls PQ, QR, RS and SP, where PQ = a and QR = b. A particle is projected form
a point A on PQ with initial velocity ui + vj where i is the unit vector in the
direction PQ and j is the unit vector in the direction PS. Suppose the particle after
Figure 1 rebounding in turn from the walls QR, RS and PS returns to the initial point A.
The coefficient of restitution between the particle and the walls is e.
A particle P of weight W1 is attached to the rim of a uniform circular disc of (a) Prove that the time taken for the particle to move from A and return to A after
weight W2 , radius r and centre O. The disc rests on a rough horizontal floor and b
rebounding at the walls QR, RS and SP is (1  e) .
against a rough vertical wall (See Figure 1.) The coefficient of friction between ev
the disc and the floor is P1 and that between the disc and the wall is P 2 . (b) Suppose the particle continues to rebound from walls. Find the time taken for
Suppose the disc is limiting equilibrium, and OP makes an angle T to the the particle to return to A for the n th time.
horizontal. bu k (1  e)
(c) Prove that 1 , where k = PA / PQ.
av e
§ W1  W2 · P1 ( P 2  1)
(a) Show that cos T ¨¨ ¸¸ .
© W1 ¹ 1  P1 P 2
5. An aeroplane, flying upwards with constant speed u in the direction making an
2 angle E with the horizontal, passes over a gun on the ground. When the
(b) If P1 P 2 , and cosT , show that limiting equilibrium is possible only if
3 aeroplane is directly above the gun, its is at height h. After a time lapse T, the gun
17  3 is then fired, with muzzle speed v and an angle of elevation D ( D ! E ! 0 ). The
0  P1  .
2 trajectory of the shell and the line of flight of the aeroplane are in the same plane.
(a) Prove that the shell is able to hit the aeroplane only if
3. A circular track is banked so that a motor cyclist who travels at 40 km h -1 in a cos E
vt 2 gh .
horizontal circle of radius 100 m experiences no tendency to side-slip. If the sin(D  E )
coefficient of friction is 0.25 and the size of the cycle and cyclist can be ignored, (b) What other condition must be satisfied if the shell can hit the aeroplane?
(a) show that the cyclist can ride on the track without slipping at all speeds below
40 km h -1 , and 6. A light elastic string of natural length l and modulus O is hung vertically with
(b) find the greatest speed at which he can ride without slipping. the upper end fixed at A. A heavy particle of mass M is attached to the other end B.
 (a) Determine the distance from A of the equilibrium position of the particle. 9.
(b) The mass is held at A and then released from rest. Find the time taken by the
particle to return to A.

7. A wedge, of mass M and angle D , is initially at rest on a smooth horizontal table.

A particle of mass m, initially at the bottom of the wedge, is projected with speed
u up the face of the wedge along the line of greatest slope. The contact between
the particle and the wedge is also smooth. Assuming that the particle remains on
the face of the wedge throughout this motion, determine the displacement of the
wedge when the particle again reaches the bottom of the wedge. Figure 4

8. A uniform solid disc of mass m and radius a is initially at rest at the top of a fixed
rough circular cylinder of radius b. Suppose the disc rolls without slipping down
the cylinder. Let T be the angle made by the line joining the centres and the
4
vertical (See Figure 4.) Show that the disc leaves the cylinder when cosT .
7

Figure 3

From a uniform circular disc of mass M and radius R, a small disc of radius r is
1
cut out, leaving a circular hole. The centre of the hole is at a distance of R
2
from the centre of the disc. The disc so cut out is then attached to the
circumference of the original disc and attached disc lie on a straight line in that
order (See Figure 3.)
(a) Find the distance from O of the centre of mass of the lamina so formed.
(b) Find the moment of inertia of the lamina about an axis through O
perpendicular to the lamina.
(c) If the lamina is allowed to perform small oscillations about the axis through O
perpendicular to the lamina, show that the period of oscillation T is given by

2ʌ 2 § 6 R 4  9 R 2 r 2  4r 4 ·
T2 ¨¨ ¸¸ .
g © 2 R  3Rr  2r
3 2 3
¹
1. In a certain chain reaction x 3 as starting values, find the least number of steps required so that
X oY o Z , the approximate root differs from D by less than 0.001.
radioactive element X decays into radioactive element Y which in turn decays into
element Z. The numbers of atoms of X, Y and Z at time t are x, y and z respectively.
4. The mean P and variance V 2 of a finite population P ^x1 , x2 , ..., xn `, where
The total number of atoms, x + y + z, is constant over time. The rates of decay of X
and Y are k1 x and k 2 y respectively ( k 2 ! k1 ! 0 ). At time t 0 , x = A and n ! 2 , are defined as follows:
y z 0. 1 n
(a) Show that
P ¦ xi , and
ni1
(i) x Ae  k1t , and 1 n
Ak1
V2 ¦ ( xi  P ) 2 .
ni1
(ii) y (e  k1t  e  k2t ) .
k 2  k1
Samples of size 2, ^xi , x j `, where i z j , are drawn at random from P. The mean
Hence deduce the value of z at time t.
(b) Find the time at which y attains its maximum. What is this maximum value?
of xi and xj is denoted by xij . These means then form a set

2. (a) Let f(x) = ln (1 + sin x).

S { xij : i z j; i 1, 2,..., n; j 1, 2, ..., n }.
(i) Obtain Taylor’s expansion of f(x) about 0, up to and including the term
n 1 n n
in x 4 .
(ii) By considering the remainder term in Taylor’s expansion, namely,
(a) Show that ¦ ¦ (x
i 1 j i 1
i  xj) (n  1)¦ xi .
i 1

xn (b) Show that the mean of all the elements of S is equal to P .

Rn f ( n ) ([ ) .
n! (n  2)V 2
(c) Show that the variance of all the elements of S is equal to . Hence
where [ lies between 0 and x, or otherwise, show that the error in 2(n  1)
using the expansion in (i) as an approximation for f(x) over the interval 1 2
deduce that if n o f , this variance tends to V .
[0, 1] is less than 0.042. 2
ʌ
(b) The integral ³0
6 ln(cos x)dx is to be evaluated by Simpson’s rule. Find the
5. This weekend (Friday to Sunday), A is available to meet his friends at home.
least number of sub-intervals required so that the error will be less than 10 8 1
(a) The probability that B goes to visit A on Friday is . On each of the other two
in magnitude. 5
days, the probability that he goes, given that he has gone the previous day, is
3. (a) Let f(x) be a differentiable function which has a real zero D . By using a flow D and the probability that he goes, given that he has not gone the previous
diagram, describe how Newton’s method can be used to determine D with an day, is E .
initial guess x0 . (i) Find the probability that B goes on Sunday.
(b) Let D be a real root of the equation x 3  3 x  3 0 . (ii) If X denotes the event that B goes on Friday, X the event that he does
(i) Show that D is unique and lies in the interval (2, 3). not go on Friday, and Y the event that he goes on Sunday, show that
(ii) Using the method of false position, obtain an initial guess x0 of D ,
P(Y X )  P(Y X ) (D  E ) 2 .
with x = 2 and x = 3 as the starting values.
(iii) Using Newton’s method, with x0 as the initial guess, determine D (b) Each of C, D, and E has independently a probability 1  D of visiting A on
correct to two decimal places. Sunday. Whenever there are at least four of the five friends present, they play
(iv) If D is to be determined by the method of bisection with x = 2 and bridge. If D E , what is the probability that a bridge game is played?
 such that
6. The manager of a supermarket knows, from past experience, that the demand for a P(T0 d T d T1 ) t 0.90 .
certain product for the coming week is x kilograms, where x lies between 0 and A,
with the following probability density function: 8. A manufacturer submits a large batch of items per week to a consumer. To monitor
­ 6 x( A  x) quality control on each batch, the consumer adopts a two-stage sampling plan for
° , 0d xd A
f ( x) ® A3 decision making. In the first sage, a sample of 10 items is selected from the batch.
°̄0 , otherwise. The batch is accepted if this sample contains no defective items, and is rejected if
Suppose the manager stocks S kilograms of the product to meet the demand. If the sample contains two or more defective items. Otherwise, a second sample of
S ! x , the supermarket will suffer a loss of $ C1 for every kilogram overstocked. 10 items is selected. If this sample contains zero or one defective item, the batch is
If S  x , it will likewise suffer a loss of $ C 2 for every kilogram short. Show accepted. If it contains two or more defective items, the batch is rejected. Suppose
that the optimum value of S which minimizes expected loss is given by the cubic the proportion of defective items in the batches is 0.1.
equation: (a) Find the probability that a given batch will be rejected.
C2 (b) What is the average number of items inspected per batch?
S (3 A  2 S )
2
A x 3
.
C1  C 2 (c) The consumer will disqualify the manufacturer if, within any five consecutive
If A = 90, C1 2 , C2 0.7 , find the optimum value of S. What is the batches, two are rejected. Find the probability that the manufacturer is
corresponding expected loss? disqualified within the first six weeks.
(Note: In this question, the expected value of a function g(x) of x is
A 9. The time required to travel by bus from North Point to Central is normally
E[ g ( x)] ³
0
g ( x ) f ( x ) dx .
distributed with mean 15 minutes and standard deviation 5 minutes. Miss Chan
travels by bus to work from North Point to Central every day. She has to walk to
7. (a) In a game, the amount of money that can be won is denoted by x (in dollars). her office in Central from the bus-stop. The time spent in walking is also normally
The probability that x takes the value xi is pi , where i = 1, 2, …, n, and distributed with mean 10 minutes and standard deviation 2 minutes. You may
assume that the two periods of time are independent of each other, and that their
¦p i 1 . Let P and V 2
denote, respectively, the mean and variance of x.
sum and difference are also normally distributed.
By splitting the variance into suitable parts, show that for any t > 0, (a) Miss Chan gets on a bus at 8:25 a.m. every morning. She has to arrive at her
V2 office before 9:00 a.m. Find the probability that she is late on a given day.
P(( x  P ) 2 ! t ) 
.
t (b) Find the probability that Miss Chan spends less than travelling by bus from
Hence deduce that for any k > 0, North Point to Central than walking from the bus-stop to her office on a given
1 day.
P( P  kV d x d P  kV ) t 1  2 .
k (c) Miss Chan also goes home by bus. She suspects that the mean time taken to
(b) In an entertaining TV programme, members of the audience are selected to travel by bus from Central to North Point is less than 15 minutes. Nevertheless
play a game. Four cards, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, are put in random order with she is quite certain that the standard deviation is still 5 minutes. On 36
faces down. The person selected is requested to guess the numbers on the randomly selected days, her average time taken is 14 minutes. Is Miss Chan’s
cards one after another. The game is over as soon as either he makes a wrong suspicion justified? Why?
guess or he has made all correct guesses. He will be given $100 for a wrong
guess on the first card, $1,000 on the second card, $3,000 on the third card,
and $5,000 if he makes all correct guesses. Let T be the total payoff for 100
such games. Using the result in (a), find two optimum values T0 and T1