Question

A Navy rescue plane drops a package of emergency rations to victims of a hurricane. If the plane is traveling horizontally at 62.0 m/s and is 100 m above the ground. How long was the package in the air?

Answer 1

4.5s

Step-by-step explanation:

Same amount of time it takes for the package to land if it was dropped from an helicopter hovering on the spot. As long as the plane wasn't diving towards the victims - but at that point it wouldn't be traveling horizontally, the supplies have no starting vertical velocity, so they take

`100 m = \frac12 (9.81 ms^-^2)t^2 \rightarrow t^2 \approx 20.39 s^2 \rightarrow t \approx 4.5s` to hit the ground, air resistance notwithstanding. The plane speed will just tell you that the package will land a bit short of 300 meters in the direction the plane was traveling.