PHYSICS ………………………….?

Erisol Keldo: PHYSICS ………………………….?
An airplane traveling horizontally at 160km/hr and a altitude of 800m drops medical supplies to an island.
A) How many seconds prior to the plane being directly over the island should the pilot release the supplies ?
B) What is the horizontal distance traveled by the supplies?

Answers and Views:

Answer by faris
Okay, first of all, i think its easier if we change it to m/s.
so 160 km/h = 160,000m/ 60 minute
= 160,000m/ 3600s
=44.444 m/s

And we have to assume that there’s no air resistance (friction) for the medical supplies, so that the horizontal velocity remains the same (constant)

but the vertical velocity should accelerate due to gravitational force, g =9.8 m/s^2 (or u could just take 10ms-2) [ ^ is to the power of]

first, calculate the time for the medical supplies to reach ground VERTICALLY,
data given,

a=g=9.8 ms-2
u = initial velocity = 0 ms-2 (because the plane is moving horizontally, so there’s no vertical acceleration until the medical supplies are released)
s = displacement (or distance) = 800m
t = time = ?

use s= ut + 1/2 at^2

800= (0)(t) + 1/2 (9.8)(t)^2
200 = 4.9t^2
t^2 =40.816
t = 6.389 s
even though this is the time taken for the medical supplies to reach VERTICALLY, but the horizontal velocity does not affect this at all, okay, first question done.

so, we know that the medical supplies would take 6.389s to reach ground,
now we want to calculate the horizontal distance travelled by the supplies.

data given:

a= 0 m/s^2 (because the horizontal velocity remains the SAME as there’s no air resistance and no acceleration, too)
v = u = 44.444 m/s
s = ?
t = 6.389 s
use s= ut + 1/2at^2

s= (44.444)(6.389) + 1/2(0)(6.389)^2
= 283.945 m

I was kind of rushing when im doing this and i didnt recheck so sorry if there’s wrong calculation or something. Hope this helped!