Question

2. If I drop a watermelon from the top of one of the tower dorms at CSU, and it takes 3.34 seconds to hit the ground, calculate how tall the building is in meters

Answer 1

The building is 54.66 m tall

Step-by-step explanation:

Free Fall

It occurs when an object falls under the sole influence of gravity and do not encounter air resistance.

If an object is dropped from rest in a free-falling motion, it falls with a constant acceleration called the acceleration of gravity, which value is
`g = 9.8 m/s^2`.

The distance traveled by a dropped object at time t is:

`\displaystyle y=(gt^2)/(2)`

The watermelon is dropped from a tower dorm and takes t=3.34 seconds to hit the ground.

The distance traveled in that time is the height of the building:

`\displaystyle h=(9.8*3.34^2)/(2)`

h = 54.66 m

The building is 54.66 m tall