Question

An airplane is flying 1200 m above the ground at a speed of 200 m/s. It drops a

package carrying vaccines for a local community that hits the ground after
traveling a horizontal distance of 3130 m.
As the third plane comes by to make the drop, it has a catastrophic engine failure and the pilot has to eject, throwing him straight up from the plane. Assuming that he undergoes free-fall acceleration until he lands describe what would happen to how far the pilot travels(in relation to 3130 m) and briefly explain your answer.

Answer 1

The pilot would travel approximately the same horizontal distance as the package (around 3130 m) before hitting the ground, assuming no additional forces act on him, as the only force during free fall is gravity, affecting only the vertical motion.

Step-by-step explanation:

If the pilot ejects straight up from the plane undergoing a catastrophic engine failure, his horizontal component of velocity would initially be the same as the speed of the plane (200 m/s) and will decrease over time due to air resistance. However, since we are assuming free-fall acceleration in the absence of air resistance, the pilot would continue to move horizontally at 200 m/s, the same speed as the plane, until gravity pulls him to the ground. If we consider that the package dropped from the plane without any initial vertical velocity and traveled 3130 m horizontally, then without additional forces acting on it, the pilot would also travel approximately the same horizontal distance before hitting the ground. This is because in free fall, the only force acting on the pilot is gravity which only affects the vertical motion. The horizontal motion would remain constant until impact, as no force is acting in that direction.