Calculating the Height of a Window Using Kinematic Equations

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on calculating the height of a window from which a TV is dropped and a converter is thrown downwards at 20 m/s. The key equations used include the kinematic equations for motion under constant acceleration, specifically d = v0t + 1/2at2 and t = √(2d/a). The user initially calculated the height as 27.6 meters but was corrected to find that the correct height is 33.6 meters after properly substituting the time variable into the equations. The error stemmed from incorrect substitution and simplification of the kinematic equations.

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Ahh just had a test and i thought i did this question correctly as it turns out though most of the other people in the class got a different value than me so I'm just wondering if someone could show me where i went wrong :D
Bascially the question is a person drops a TV from a window and then throws a converter at 20m/s down it takes the converter half the amount of time to reach the ground how high is the window

so i listed the given values for the TV with down as positive:
v1=0 v2=x a=9.8 d=? t=?
and the converter:
v1=20 v2=x a=9.8 d=? t=?

then i used the TV to find an equation for time since v1=0
[tex]d=V_{1}t\frac{at^2}{2}[/tex]
then just rearrange end up with t=[tex]\sqrt{\frac{2d}{a}}[/tex]

so i sub that into the converter equation get...
[tex]d=\frac{20\sqrt{\frac{2d}{a}}+1/2a\frac{2d}{a}}{2}[/tex]

then i subbed my values and got something like 3/4d^2+20.7d=0 (not sure of exact values..)
d(3/4d+20.7)=0
20.7(4)/3=d
27.6=d
so you get d=0 and d=27.6 so its obviously 27.6 but other people got 33.6 or something where did i go wrong :|
 
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Sorry! said:
then i used the TV to find an equation for time since v1=0
[tex]d=V_{1}t\frac{at^2}{2}[/tex]
then just rearrange end up with t=[tex]\sqrt{\frac{2d}{a}}[/tex]
Good.

so i sub that into the converter equation get...
[tex]d=\frac{20\sqrt{\frac{2d}{a}}+1/2a\frac{2d}{a}}{2}[/tex]
Redo the substitution more carefully. The converter equation is:
[tex]d = v_0t + 1/2at^2[/tex]

You need to substitute:
[tex]t = (\sqrt{\frac{2d}{a}})/2[/tex]
 

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