Question #cb1b7

1 Answer
Jan 31, 2016

"24 m"24 m

Explanation:

The key to this problem lies with understanding that the object falls with an initial velocity equal to the velocity of the cage.

The object will fall with an initial velocity of "2 ms"^(-1)2 ms1 and accelerate towards the water under the influence of gravity.

On the other hand, the cage will continue its descent at a constant velocity of "2 m s"^(-1)2 m s1.

Another important thing to realize here is that both the cage and the object cover the same distance, which we'll label hh.

Let's assume that after the object falls, the cage reaches the water in t_ctc seconds. You know that the object reaches the water 1010 seconds before the cage, so you can say that

t_o = t_c - 10" " " "color(red)("(*)")to=tc10 (*)

So, you can write two equations

h = v_o * t_c ->h=votc for the cage**

and

h = v_0 * t_o + 1/2 * g * t_o^2 ->h=v0to+12gt2o for the object**

This means that you have

v_0 * t_c = v_0 * t_o + 1/2 * g * t_o^2" " " "color(purple)("(*)")v0tc=v0to+12gt2o (*)

Use equation color(red)("(*)")(*) to find

t_c = t_0 + 10tc=t0+10

Plug this into equation color(purple)("(*)")(*) to get

v_0 * (t_0 + 10) = v_0 * t_o + 1/2 * g * t_o^2v0(t0+10)=v0to+12gt2o

This simplifies to

color(red)(cancel(color(black)(v_0 * t_0))) + 10 * v_0 = color(red)(cancel(color(black)(v_0 * t_0))) + 1/2 * g * t_o^2

1/2 * g * t_o^2 = 10 * v_0

Rearrange to find t_o

t_0^2 = (2 * 10 * v_0)/g implies t_0 = sqrt((2 * 10 * v_0)/g)

Plug in your values to get

t_o = sqrt( (2 * 10color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"))) * 2 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m"))) color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1)))))/(9.81color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m")))"s"^(-2))) = "2.02 s"

This means that

t_c = "2.02 s" + "10 s" = "12.02 s"

The height from which the object fell is equal to

h = v_0 * t_c

h = "2 m"color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1)))) * 12.02color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"))) ~~ color(green)("24 m")