The aircraft carrier USS constellation visited anchorage in 1986. During the visit, visitors were told that the steam powered catapult used to launch aircraft could "throw a nissan pick-up truck five miles" we will critique this boast
the following information is from the brochure which each...
ergg
i found trucks acceleration as ~490m/s^2
and launch deck length as 89 meters..
it comes out that the truck travels .604 secs on the deck and after that, the truck is in free fall..
since the height of deck is 57 ft...its 17meters
and i calculated the time of free fall from 17 meters...
heres the problem:
steam-powered catapult used to launch aircraft could "throw a nissan pick-up five miles(8045meters)"
catapult has the power to accelerate 30-ton aircraft from zero to 160mph(71.511m/s) in just 2.5 seconds
nissan pick up truck weighs 3500 pounds and the flight deck is 57...