A car drives horizontally off a 73-m-high cliff at a speed of 27 m/s. Ignore air resistance. How long will it take the car to hit the ground?

Question

Jamie Meadows

Physics

8 January, 00:35

A car drives horizontally off a 73-m-high cliff at a speed of 27 m/s. Ignore air resistance. How long will it take the car to hit the ground?

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Answers (1)

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Natasha · Answer 1

At the edge of the cliff, the speed of the car will have two components. The x-component, horizontal, is equal to 27 m/s while the y-component, vertical, is equal to zero. With this, the car is seemingly in free-fall.

The equation that would allow us to answer the question above is,

d = (V₀) t + 0.5gt²

where d is distance, V₀ is the initial velocity, g is the acceleration due to gravity and t is the time. Substituting the known values,

73 = (0) (t) + 0.5 (9.8 m/s²) (t²)

Vo equals zero because we only consider the y-component of the vector. Solving for the value of t will give us an answer of 3.86 s.

Answer: 3.86 seconds