Optimal Angle for a Fireman Shooting Water from a 20m High Roof

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fusilli_Jerry89
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
2 replies · 2K views
Fusilli_Jerry89
Messages
158
Reaction score
0
A fireman shoots water out of a hose at 12m/s. he is standing on a 20m high roof and is aiming for the top of another roof at the same height, but it is 21 m away. What angle should the fireman aim the hose above the horizontal in order to hit the other roof?

i set up a chart but have no idea what to do now:
x y
vi " '
vf " -'
a 0 -9.8
d 21 0
t
 
Physics news on Phys.org
You need to split up the trajectory into horizontal and vertical components, start by writing down the following;

  • Initial Horizontal Velocity*
  • Initial Vertical Velocity*
  • Change in Vertical Displacement
  • Change in Horizontal Displacement
  • Acceleration in the vertical plane

Note that (*) will be trigonometric functions of the launch angle. Once you have done this, apply kinematic equations to each component independently.
 
In questions about projectiles, it is quite often, like in this case that you will need to find the time by resolving it vertically.