Question

The first drop on Goliath is 228 ft. It takes 6 seconds to go down the drop. What is the speed at the bottom in m/s (1ft = 0.3048 m)?

Answer 1

58.8 m/s.

Step-by-step explanation:

To answer this question, we need to use the formula for the final velocity of a free fall object:

v = v₀ + gt

where v is the final velocity, v₀ is the initial velocity, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and t is the time of fall.

We can assume that the initial velocity of the roller coaster at the top of the drop is zero, since it starts from rest. We can also assume that the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s², which is a reasonable approximation for Earth’s surface. We are given that the time of fall is 6 seconds.

However, we need to convert the height of the drop from feet to meters, since we want the final velocity in m/s. We can use the conversion factor that 1 ft = 0.3048 m. So,

228 ft × 0.3048 m/ft = 69.5 m

Now we can plug in the values into the formula and solve for v:

v = v₀ + gt v = 0 + 9.8 × 6 v = 58.8 m/s

Therefore, the speed at the bottom of the drop is about 58.8 m/s.