Question

Agustina was standing on the edge of a cliff of unknown height holding a bowling ball. She wanted to find the height of the cliff. She worked with Maite to time the how long the bowling took to fall to the bottom of the cliff. Maite timed the drop at 9.4 seconds on each of their 10 trials. The bowling ball started at rest on each of the trials. What distance did the bowling ball fall in each trial?

Answer 1

433 m

Step-by-step explanation:

Since the fall represents motion under gravity, we use the equation

s = ut - 1/2gt² where s = height of cliff or distance bowling ball falls through, u = initial velocity of bowling ball = 0 m/s(since it starts from rest), t = time = 9.4 s and g = acceleration due to gravity = -9.8 m/s².

So, substituting the values of the variables into the equation, we have

s = 0 m/s × 9.4 s - 1/2 × 9.8 m/s² × (9.4 s)²

s = 0 m - 1/2 × -9.8 m/s² × 88.36 s²

s = 1/2(865.928 m)

s = 432.964

s ≅ 433 m