- #1
jnorman
- 316
- 0
i am an idiot.
i am going to drop a rock from the top of a building.
i want to know the force with which the rock will impact the ground.
i know the rock's mass is 1kg.
i know that the rock will accelerate at 9.8m/sec/sec.
if i use the equation F=ma, i get a fixed result/answer - 9.8N or 9.8kg-m/sec/sec (correct?).
without inputing some time variable into this, so i can know how long the rock undergoes acceleration, i cannot determine how fast the rock is going when it hits the ground. if i don't know how fast the rock is going, i cannot know how much force the rock will exert on the ground when it hits.
what am i missing here?
thanks.
i am going to drop a rock from the top of a building.
i want to know the force with which the rock will impact the ground.
i know the rock's mass is 1kg.
i know that the rock will accelerate at 9.8m/sec/sec.
if i use the equation F=ma, i get a fixed result/answer - 9.8N or 9.8kg-m/sec/sec (correct?).
without inputing some time variable into this, so i can know how long the rock undergoes acceleration, i cannot determine how fast the rock is going when it hits the ground. if i don't know how fast the rock is going, i cannot know how much force the rock will exert on the ground when it hits.
what am i missing here?
thanks.