Solving for Distance d Up Slope of 1/5

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The discussion focuses on calculating the distance a particle travels up a slope of 1/5 after being launched at a 30-degree angle with an initial velocity of 40 m/s. The participant derived the velocity vector as \vec{v}=(40\cos(30), 40\sin(30)-9.8t) and the position vector as \vec{r}=(40\cos(30)t, 40\sin(30)t-4.9t^{2}). The solution involved determining the intersection of the parabolic path with the slope function y=\frac{1}{5}x, successfully yielding a result that was only 0.1 off from the expected answer.

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I'm given that a particle launched at 30 degrees, and 40m/s from the horizontal axis travels a certain distance d up a constant slope of 1/5.

I need to determine how far up that slope the particle goes.

I got a velocity vector the obvious way:

[tex]\vec{v}=(40cos(30},40sin(30)-9.8t)[/tex]

Then integrating to get position:
[tex]\vec{r}=(40cos(30)t,40sin(30)t-9.8\frac{t^{2}}{2})[/tex]

I'm fairly certain I did this bit correctly. The issue I'm having here is that I don't know how to now solve for the arbitrary distance d that the particle travels up the hill.

I was thinking of writing a function for the slope, then seeing where it intersects the parabolic path.
I got [tex]y=\frac{1}{5}x[/tex] for the slope function. However this is in terms of position x and not time. I'm thinking I can use the x position from the parabolic path as the x parameter in the slope function and then solve the resulting equation. Does this make sense?
 
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Hi Lancelot59! :wink:
Lancelot59 said:
… I'm thinking I can use the x position from the parabolic path as the x parameter in the slope function and then solve the resulting equation. Does this make sense?

Yes. :smile:
 
It worked! I was off of the book's answer by 0.1. Thanks.
 

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