ANSWER
Step-by-step explanation
First, let us make a sketch of the problem:
We want to find d from the diagram above.
To do this, we have to first find the time taken for the mattress to catch the human using the formula for vertical height below:
where y = ground level = 0 m
y0 = initial height of cannon = 0.75 m
viy = initial velocity in the y-direction
t = time taken
g = acceleration due to gravity
The components of velocity for the body are shown below:
This means that the velocity in the y-direction is given as:
where vi = initial velocity, θ = angle of launch
Therefore, we have that:
Solving for t using quadratic formula, we have that:
Since time has to be positive, we have that:
Now, we have to find the distance of the mattress from the cannon by applying the formula:
where vix = initial velocity in the x-direction.
We have that:
Therefore, the distance is: