1. A flowerpot falls from the ledge of an apartment building
A flowerpot falls from the ledge of an apartment building. A person in an apartment below, coincidentally in possession of a high-speed, high-precision timing system, notices that it takes 0.2 s to fall past his 3.5 m tall window. How far above the top of the window is the ledge from which the pot fell?
Since the flowerpot falls from rest, its initial velocity is zero. It experiences
an acceleration of g.
Step1: Calculate the average velocity of the flowerpot as it falls past the window. This is the instantaneous velocity at the midtime of that segment.
Step2: Use the instantaneous velocity at the midtime to calculate the total time from the top of the ledge. Letting down be positive -- h
t = 0.2 s
3.5 m
Knowing that the it took 0.1 s less for the flowerpot
to reach the top of the window, we now calculate:
Now use this time to calculate the height: