An object falls from the Transco Tower in Houston and takes 15 seconds to reach the ground. How tall is the building in meters?

Answer 1

For this problem, we will need a kinematic equation. I suggest d = v_it + 1/2at² , where d is distance, v_i is the initial speed, t is the time, and a is the acceleration. In this case, we can assume that the initial speed is 0, as it was dropped from a building. We also know that it is accelerating due to gravity, which has a rate of 9.8 m/s². Now we can plug our values into the equation:

d = v_it + 1/2at²

d = 0(15) + 1/2(9.8)(15²)

d = 0 + 1102.5

d = 1102.5 meters