Horizontally missed target, By how much?

[lisa1220]

Homework Statement

A ball is thrown horizontally with an initial velocity of 10m/s and misses a target 4m away. By how far did it miss the target.

Homework Equations

I am very new and have been solving distance with the time known. That is not the case here and so I divided the distance by the velocity to get the time of .4 s. Then 1/2at^2 and got .8m for how far the ball missed the target. Is that right?

 

[CompuChip]

Aren't you leaving out a bit of information, like the height from which the ball was thrown?

 

[tia89]

Aren't you leaving out a bit of information, like the height from which the ball was thrown?

Actually I do not think you need the height at which it leaves... IF (you are not stating that) it is in a gravitational field (acceleration $g$) AND the target is a point at the same height the ball leaves, then it is easy.

You just have to compute how much it falls vertically in the gravitational field starting with no vertical velocity, and using as final time the time it reaches the target (which you can find from th horizontal motion which remains uniform).

 

[lisa1220]

I thought I was missing information at first too but the vertical direction isn't part of the question. I solved for time and then for distance. I got it right.