okie, ill post the solution to problem 3, while u guyz try 1 nd 2.
hope the situation gets a lot more clearer than it is now after it post it..
luk by any path, say concider the motion of the particle at an angle \alpha to the horizontal,
now as we write the W.E theoram,
work done by all forces= change in KE
so ,
(mgsin\alpha -KN)ds= dE
now concider all cases seperately,
we have for the concave case,
\frac{mv^{2}}{R}+ mgcos\alpha =N
or, we have
E=\int mgsin\alpha ds -K\int mgcos\alpha ds - K\int mv^{2}/Rds
we have mg∫sin(alpha)ds = mgH where H is the height of descent,
similarly we have mg∫cos(alpha)ds= mgL 'L' being the length.
H and L are common for all 3.
now for concave case we have E=mgH-KmgL -K∫mv2/Rds
where R is radius of curvature at any alpha.
coming to the convex case, we have ,
N=mgcos\alpha -mv^{2}/R
and thus, we have
E= mgH - KmgL + K∫mv2/Rds
for the flat case we have at every instant R=∞, so mv2/R=0,
a speacial case of both convex and concave,
so we notice that E the KE at the end pt,
for
1)concave case = mgH- KmgL - ∫Kmv2/Rds
2)convex case= mgH-KmgL + ∫Kmv2/Rds
3)flat case= mgH-KmgL
we know that Kmv2/R at any instant for both convex and concave are different, but are positive,
so we have Kconvex>Kflat>Kconcave
tell if any problem.
cheers!!