As a science project, you drop a watermelon off the top of the Empire State Building, 320 m above the sidewalk. It so happens that Superman flies by at the instant you release the watermelon. Superman is headed straight down with a speed of 30.0 m/s . How fast is the watermelon going when it passes Superman

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Chapter1: Units, Trigonometry. And Vectors
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As a science project, you drop a watermelon off the top of the Empire State Building, 320 m above the sidewalk. It so happens that Superman flies by at the instant you release the watermelon. Superman is headed straight down with a speed of 30.0 m/s . How fast is the watermelon going when it passes Superman?

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Consider we drop a watermelon off the top of the empire state building having a height (h) above the sidewalk.

h=320 m ----(1) [Given]

acceleration due to gravity,(g)=9.8 m/sec2 ----(2) [Universal Constant]

It also happens that Superman flies by at the instant when we release the watermelon. Superman is headed straight down with a speed of superman (VS) in m/sec respectively.

VS=30 m/sec ----(3) [Given]

Distance traveled by superman be (DS) in meter & time (T) in seconds respectively which can be given by:-

DS=VST ------(4)

Distance traveled by watermelon be (DW) in meter & time (T) in seconds respectively which can be given by:-

Using 2nd equation of motion we get,

Dw=UwT+12gT2     [Here UW is the initial velocity of  the watermelon]

Dw=12gT2 -----(5) [UW is zero because initially, watermelon is at rest]

The watermelon passes Superman when the two are the same distance from the top at the same time.

So, DS = D -----(6)

 

 

 

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