Final answer:
The sprinkler's water trajectory is an example of projectile motion, forming a parabolic path influenced by initial velocity, launch angle, and gravity. In projectile motion problems, we often decompose the velocity and apply equations of motion to find range and height.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question about a sprinkler sending water out at a 20° angle to the horizontal with a speed of 10 m/s refers to the study of projectile motion, which is a topic within Physics. Projectile motion describes the motion of an object thrown or projected into the air, subject to only the acceleration of gravity.
The water from the sprinkler follows a parabolic trajectory, which means it will rise to a certain height while moving forward, then it will fall down to the ground, also while moving forward. The key aspects to consider in projectile motion are the initial velocity, the angle of projection, and the acceleration due to gravity.
Let's take a related but more specific example to explain the concept: If a water balloon cannon is fired at 30 m/s at an angle of 50° above the horizontal, we would want to calculate how far away it will fall, which is a common type of problem involving projectile motion.
To solve it, we would need to decompose the initial velocity into horizontal and vertical components and use the equations of motion to find the range of the projectile.