What is the velocity and angle of impact when throwing a rock off a cliff?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kingofretards
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Rock
AI Thread Summary
A student throws a stone horizontally off a 22.0 m cliff at a speed of 23.0 m/s. The stone takes 2.1 seconds to reach the beach below. To determine the speed and angle of impact, the vertical speed after 2.1 seconds must be calculated, combining it with the horizontal speed. The final speed can be found using the Pythagorean theorem, while the angle of impact is determined using trigonometric functions. Understanding the separation of horizontal and vertical components is crucial for solving the problem accurately.
kingofretards
Messages
7
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


A student stands at the edge of a cliff and throws a stone horizontally over the edge with a speed of 23.0 m/s. The cliff is h = 22.0 m above a flat horizontal beach.

1. How long after being released does the stone strike the beach below the cliff?

2. With what speed and angle of impact does the stone land?


Homework Equations


So far, I've only used this equations:
y-y0=v0y*t-.5*g*t^2

I couldn't find any other equations.

The Attempt at a Solution


I've solved the first part already, the time the stone strikes the beach is 2.1 seconds.
But I'm still stuck on the second part, as I'm confused about which equations to use.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Try calculating the vertical speed of the rock after a time of 2.1 seconds.
Combine this vertical component of the velocity with the horizontal component given in the question. You may want to draw a quick right-angled triangle with one side equal to the horizontal component and another equal to the vertical component. The hypotenuse of this triangle will give you the speed. The angle of impact is simply the angle between the horizontal component and the vertical component.
 
You have to be sure that you separate your x and y components. If the rock is being thrown horizontally, v0x = 23.0 m/s and v0y = 0 m/s. See what I mean? You will have to use trig to find the final velocity (usually the inverse tangent of vy and vx).

Some other useful functions (I've written them in the x direction here, but they hold for the y direction as well):
vx = v0x + axt
vx2 = v0x2 + 2ax(x - x0)
 
If so, what is the angle? I couldn't find any angles at all. It says the speed and angle at impact (when it hits the ground), not at start. So how can I find them?

I still don't understand it.
 
The angle at which the stone was thrown was given in your initial question.
 
If you are throwing something horizontally, the throw is at a right angle to the ground.
 
I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'
Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
Back
Top