Monkey and the Zookeeper

A monkey has escaped from the local zoo A monkey has escaped from the local zoo. A zookeeper is sent out to rescue the monkey and return him to the safety of the zoo by tranquilizing him with a dart. The zookeeper tracks the monkey down and finds him hanging from a branch of a tree. This particular monkey has escaped several times in the past and has learned to drop from the tree as soon as the tranquilizer gun is fired.

The Problem – Where to Aim? http://physicscentral.com/explore/action/monkey-hunter.cfm

Setup

Motion Of The Dart Y- direction X- direction

Effect of Gravity If there were no gravity (g=0) The dart would move along the hypotenuse of a right triangle. The -½gt2 in the y-direction indicates how far the dart is below the hypotenuse at any time t.

http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/monkey_hunter.html

Motion of the Monkey Y- direction

Dart Hits Monkey The acceleration term on each side is the same. This is because the relative acceleration is zero.

Eliminate Time

Aim at the Monkey