Physics homework

Question

A plane drops a hamper of medical supplies from a height of 5620 m during a practice run over the ocean. The plane’s horizontal veloc- ity was 110 m/s at the instant the hamper was dropped.

What is the magnitude of the overall ve- locity of the hamper at the instant it strikes the surface of the ocean? The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s2 .

Answer in units of m/s.

Answer 1

A key to many problems of this type is to think about the time-of-flight (TOF). That is the amount of time that the object is in free fall. For the vertical part of this problem we have

5620 = (1/2) g TOF^2

Plugging in g = 9.8 then solving for TOF gives TOF = 33.9 s.

The horizontal component of the velocity never changes (so is equal to 110 m/s), the vertical component is given by v = g TOF = 331.9 m/s

The magnitude (overall) velocity at impart is given by the the square root sum of squares .

That is |v| = sqrt ( 110^2 + 331.9^2) = 349.7m/s