Acceleration during collision with garbage can from 44.6 m fall

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GuitarHero
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Homework Statement


A very silly person, intent on catching pigeons on the roof of an apartment building, trips and falls a distance of 44.6 m. She lands on a metal garbage can, crushing it to a depth of 0.422 m and walks away without having been seriously hurt. What acceleration did she experience during the collision?


Homework Equations


(see solution attempt)
and
d=v1t+1/2at2


The Attempt at a Solution


This is what I have so far for the first part of the problem (her acceleration, velocity, and position when she is free falling for 44.6m):
a=-9.81
v=-9.81t
d=-4.905t2+44.6

But I'm not sure how to factor in the acceleration of her crushing the garbage can...

Any help would be awesome!
 

Discussion

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Conservation of energy would be better for this problem

Her gravitational pe is converted into the work done in crushing the can to the depth of 0.422m
 
rock.freak667 said:
Conservation of energy would be better for this problem

Her gravitational pe is converted into the work done in crushing the can to the depth of 0.422m

But wouldn't I need to know the original size of the garbage can to calculate the work required to crush it?
 
GuitarHero said:
But wouldn't I need to know the original size of the garbage can to calculate the work required to crush it?

I don't think you would, the can is crushed to that depth d, so W=Fd.