Question

In another experiment, you notice that a horizontally launched projectile strikes the

ground 30 meters horizontally from the edge of a building.
a. If the projectile took 1.5 seconds to strike the ground, how tall was the building?

Answer 1

To calculate the height of the building, we use the formula for vertical displacement under gravity. The building was approximately 11.0325 meters tall, based on the time of 1.5 seconds that the horizontally launched projectile took to hit the ground.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how tall the building was in this physics problem involving projectile motion, we can use the formula for the motion of an object under gravity. Since the projectile was launched horizontally, its initial vertical velocity is 0 m/s. The only force acting on the projectile in the vertical direction is gravity, which causes the projectile to accelerate downwards at a constant rate, known as the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.81 m/s2).

The formula to find the vertical displacement y (the height of the building) when the initial vertical velocity is zero is:

y = 1/2 * g * t2

Here, g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2) and t is the time it took for the projectile to hit the ground (1.5 seconds).

Plugging in the values, we get:

y = 1/2 * 9.81 m/s2 * (1.5 s)2

y = 1/2 * 9.81 m/s2 * 2.25 s2

y = 11.0325 m

Therefore, the height of the building was approximately 11.0325 meters.