Question

An airplane pilot fell 380 m after jumping from an aircraft without his parachute opening. He landed in a snowbank, creating a crater 1.0 m deep, but survived with only minor injuries. Assuming the pilot's mass was 85 kg and his terminal velocity was 50 m/s, estimate the following.

(a) the work done by the snow in bringing him to the rest

Answer 1

The story sure is exciting. But when you're ready to work on answering the question, you can ignore everything before the assumptions.

-- When the pilot hit the snow, he was allegedly falling at 50 m/s.

-- His mass is 85 kg.

-- So his kinetic energy was (1/2) (mass) (speed squared) =

(1/2) (85) (50)² = 106,250 joules

-- That's the energy that something else has to absorb in order to
reduce his speed to zero.

-- How far he fell, or what size crater he made in the snow, are irrelevant.