Projectile Motion Question #2 help?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around a projectile motion problem involving a quarter tossed at an angle to land in a dish. The height of the shelf was calculated to be 1.5 m, while the vertical component of the velocity just before landing was initially calculated as -0.93 m/s, but the correct answer is -0.89 m/s. The importance of precision in calculations is emphasized, noting that rounding time to two decimal places may lead to inaccuracies in the final answer. A participant recalculated the vertical velocity and found it to be -0.895 m/s, suggesting that rounding practices can affect the outcome. The discussion highlights the need for careful calculations in physics problems to achieve accurate results.
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Homework Statement


In a carnival booth, you win a stuffed giraffe if you toss a quarter over a small dish. The dish is on a shelf above the point where the quarter leaves your hand and is a horizontal distance of 2.1 m from this point. If you toss the coin with a velocity of 6.4 m/s at an angle of 60 degrees above the horizontal, the coin lands in the dish. You can ignore air resistance.

a) What is the height of the shelf above the point where the quarter leaves your hand?
b) What is the vertical component of the velocity of the quarter just before it lands the dish?




Homework Equations


x=(V0cosa0)t
y=(V0sina0)t - 1/2gt^2
Vx=V0cosa0
Vy=V0sina0-gt



The Attempt at a Solution


I figured part A and the answer is 1.5 m, but for Part B I got -0.93 m/s when I attempted, but the actual answer is -0.89 m/s. I used Vy=V0sina0-gt, where t is .66 s which you get from doing Part A. Help!
 
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Rounding t to .66 is inadequate. If you wish to have 2 digit accuracy in the final answer you need at least 3 digits in calculations.

Oh, I get -0.895 m/s which I would round to .90 so I disagree with the -.89, too!
 
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