Question

A helicopter hovers 200. 0 meters over the ground and releases a relief packet. How much time does it take for the food packet to reach the ground?

Answer 1

This solution assumes that there are no air resistance and no wind and thus no drag to the object itself

Based on the information given:

• inital height = 200
• final height = 0 or groundlevel
• no intial velocity
• acceleration: -g or 9.8m/s^2 (gravitional acceleration)

With that information at hand, we use the physics equation:

`x = x_(intial-height) +v_(intial-velocity)+(1)/(2)at^2`

• a: acceleration
• t: time taken for the fall
• x: (with no subscript) is the final height

Now let's plug in all the known variables and solve.

.
`0 = 200-(1)/(2)*9.8t^2\\ (1)/(2)*9.8t^2 = 200\\4.9t^2 = 200\\t = 6.389s`

Thus it takes the food packet approximately 6.389 seconds to hit the ground.

Hope that helps!