Question

A stone is thrown horizontally at 15 m/s from the top of a cliff 44 meters high. How far from the base does the stone hit the ground?

Answer 1

44.9 m

Step-by-step explanation:

For ballistic motion in x-y coordinates, an appropriate equation can be ...

y(x) = -4.9(x·sec(α)/v)² +tan(α)x + h0

where α is the angle of launch from the horizontal, and v is the magnitude of the launch velocity.

Here, we have v = 15 m/s, and α = 0, so the equation reduces to ...

y = -4.9/225x^2 +44

For y = 0, we can find x to be ...

x^2 = (44×225/4.9) ≈ 2020.41

x ≈ 44.949

The stone hits the ground about 44.9 meters from the base of the cliff.