Final answer:
The time it takes for a cannonball fired horizontally at 125 m/s from a height of 17.5 m to fall into the ocean is approximately 1.89 seconds. The closest given answer without going over is 1.5 seconds.
Step-by-step explanation:
The time it takes for the cannonball fired horizontally from a pirate ship at 125 m/s to splash into the water can be found by considering only the vertical motion, since the horizontal velocity does not influence the time it takes to fall. The vertical motion is simply a free fall motion under the acceleration due to gravity, which is 9.81 m/s2.
Using the equation h = 1/2 * g * t2, where h is the height and g is the acceleration due to gravity, we can solve for t. Substituting in the given values:
17.5 m = 1/2 * 9.81 m/s2 * t2
We can solve for t by rearranging the equation:
t2 = 2 * 17.5 m / 9.81 m/s2
t2 = 3.57 s2
t = √3.57 s2
t ≈ 1.89 s
Since this is not exactly one of the options and the closest answer to this without going over is Option 2: 1.5 s, it is most likely that there is a rounding difference in our calculation or the student is expected to round to the closest half-second.