Question

A window washer drops an empty wrench from the top of a tower. It takes 3.2s for the wrench to hit the ground. How tall is the tower?

a) 9.8 meters
b) 16.1 meters
c) 49.6 meters
d) 100.3 meters

Answer 1

Using the formula for the distance traveled during free fall and the given time of 3.2 seconds, we calculate the height of the tower to be approximately 50.2 meters, with the closest answer being 49.6 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the height from which the window washer's wrench was dropped, we can use the formula for the distance traveled during free fall: d = (1/2) * g * t^2, where d is the distance, g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s^2 on Earth), and t is the time it takes for an object to fall.

We are given that t = 3.2 seconds. Plugging in the values, we get:

d = (1/2) * 9.8 m/s^2 * (3.2 s)^2

d = 0.5 * 9.8 * 10.24

d = 4.9 * 10.24

d = 50.176 meters

Rounding to the nearest tenth gives us d ≈ 50.2 meters. Therefore, the closest answer would be c) 49.6 meters.