Mechanics: Vectors and Projectiles
Vectors and Projectiles: Audio Guided Solution
Problem 26:
The Choo Choo Restaurant in DesPlaines, IL is a 50’s style diner which is notorious for the delivery of food from the kitchen to the dining room by an O-scale model train. Dinner baskets filled with hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries and the like are mounted to the tops of flatbed train cars and transported to table tops. On Matthew’s fifth birthday, a French fry rolled off the top of the pile on a tight turn moving at a speed of 1.25 m/s and fell to the floor.
a. Determine the time for the French fry to fall 113 cm from the top of the pile to the floor.
b. Determine the horizontal displacement of the fry from the edge of the track.
c. Determine the speed of the French fry upon striking the floor.
Audio Guided Solution
Habits of an Effective Problem Solver
- Read the problem carefully and develop a mental picture of the physical situation. If necessary, sketch a simple diagram of the physical situation to help you visualize it.
- Identify the known and unknown quantities in an organized manner. Equate given values to the symbols used to represent the corresponding quantity - e.g., vox = 12.4 m/s, voy = 0.0 m/s, dx = 32.7 m, dy = ???.
- Use physics formulas and conceptual reasoning to plot a strategy for solving for the unknown quantity.
- Identify the appropriate formula(s) to use.
- Perform substitutions and algebraic manipulations in order to solve for the unknown quantity.
Read About It!
Get more information on the topic of Vectors and Projectiles at The Physics Classroom Tutorial.
- What is a Projectile?
- Characteristics of a Projectile's Trajectory
- Horizontal and Vertical Displacement
- Horizontally Launched Projectiles Problem
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