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You are standing in front of a building waiting to meet your friend. A woman accidently knocks over a plant right above your head. The plant is 0.24m above your head when it starts to drop.What must be your reaction time to avoid getting hit by the plant?

1 Answer

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Final answer:

To avoid getting hit by the falling plant, you need to react quickly and move out of the way. The reaction time required can be calculated using the distance the plant covers in free fall and the acceleration due to gravity.

Step-by-step explanation:

To avoid getting hit by the plant, you would need to react quickly and move out of the way before it falls on your head. The time it takes for you to react is called your reaction time. In this situation, the plant is 0.24m above your head when it starts to fall. Let's calculate the reaction time required to avoid getting hit by the plant.

We know that the distance the plant covers in free fall is 0.24m and the acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.8m/s². Using the equation d = (1/2)gt², where d is the distance, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and t is the time, we can rearrange the equation to solve for t: t = sqrt(2d/g). Plugging in the values, we get t = sqrt(2(0.24)/9.8) ≈ 0.190s. Therefore, your reaction time needs to be approximately 0.190 seconds to avoid getting hit by the falling plant.

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