Final Answer:
The ball was thrown from a height of 66.775 meters.
Explanation:
The key values in this problem are:
Knowns: Horizontal speed (vo) = 23.0 m/s, horizontal distance (d) = 55.0 m, acceleration due to gravity (g) = 9.8 m/s²
Unknown: Initial height (h)
To find the initial height (h), we can use the horizontal motion equation:
, where (t) is the time of flight. Since the ball is thrown horizontally, the vertical motion is governed by
. The time of flight can be determined from the horizontal motion using
.
Substituting this into the vertical motion equation gives
. Plugging in the known values, we find
meters.