A skydiver jumps out of an airplane traveling with a horizontal velocity of 377.3 m/s. She falls for 5.8 seconds before she opens her parachute. How far has she traveled in the horizontal direction in this time?

Question

Physics

Isabella Pennington

20 October, 23:57

A skydiver jumps out of an airplane traveling with a horizontal velocity of 377.3 m/s. She falls for 5.8 seconds before she opens her parachute. How far has she traveled in the horizontal direction in this time?

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Dangelo Mcintyre · Answer 1

No answer is possible unless we ignore the real world.

In the real world, = => the skydiver jumps out of an airplane traveling with a horizontal velocity of 844 miles per hour, and is instantly torn to shreds as soon as she hits the supersonic air-stream, and = => we don't have enough information to solve the problem with air resistance, but the airplane can't fly without it.

Knowing all of this, we'll just accept the data as given, and ignore air resistance.

Gravity creates only vertical forces, and it has no effect on horizontal velocity. So Ms. Skydiver keeps plowing ahead at 377.3 m/s forever, or at least as long as we remain interested.

Distance = (speed) x (time)

Distance = (377.3 m/s) x (5.8 sec)

Distance = (377.3 x 5.8) (m-sec/sec)

Distance = 2,188 meters