Topic five assignment
1. A car traveling at a constant speed of 45m/s passes a trooper hidden behind a billboard. One
second after the speeding car passes the billboard, the trooper sets out from the billboard to
catch it, accelerating at a constant rate of 3m/s2. How long does it take the trooper to overtake
the car?
2. A parcel is to be dropped from an aeroplane traveling horizontally at 120ms -1, at an altitude of
720m, to fall into a certain village. Determine:
a) The time taken for the parcel to reach the ground
b) How far ahead of the plane, the village should be when the parcel is released
3. An elevator has a mass of 1000 kg. It accelerates upwards at 3m/s2. What is the force T exerted
by the cab in the elevator? What is the tension T if the acceleration is 3m/s 2 downwards?
4. A ball is thrown vertically upwards from the ground with an initial speed of 15.0 m/s. (a) How
long does it take the ball to reach its maximum height? (b) What is its maximum height? (c)
Determine the velocity and acceleration of the ball at t = 2.00 s.
5. A ball is dropped from rest from a height h above the ground. Another ball is thrown vertically
upward from the ground at the instant the first ball is released. Determine the speed of the
second ball if the two balls are to meet at a height h/2 above the ground.
6. A student throws a stone vertically upwards from the base of a 51 m building and at the same
time, a second student on the top of the building drops a stone. If the two stones collide 12 m
from the ground, what was the initial velocity of the thrown stone?
7. A model rocket is launched straight upward with an initial speed of 50.0 m/s. It accelerates
with a constant upward acceleration of 2.00 m/s2 until its engines stop at an altitude of 150 m.
(a) What can you say about the motion of the rocket after its engines stop? (b) What is the
maximum height reached by the rocket? (c) How long after lift-off does the rocket reach its
maximum height? (d) How long is the rocket in the air?
8. A stone is thrown vertically downwards from the top of a building at a velocity of 5.0m/s. This
stone is observed passing by a window that has a height of 2.0 m. Assuming that the bottom
of the window is 25 m from the ground, how long does it take for the stone to pass by the
window?
9. A car traveling at 40 m/s hits the brakes when it sees a red light 100 meters away. What
acceleration is required in order for the car to stop before it reaches the light?
10. A snowball is thrown upward at a speed of 27 m/s. How high (above the position from which
it was thrown) is the snow ball 3.5 seconds later? Also, how fast is it moving at that time? In
what direction?
11. A cliff diver on an alien planet dives off of a 32 m tall cliff and lands in a sea of hydrochloric
acid 1.20 seconds later. Assuming that the extra-terrestrial’s initial speed was zero, what is
the free fall acceleration of this strange world?
12. Two people are standing on the edge of a building that is 42 meters high (back on earth). One
person throws a tennis ball straight downward at a speed of 16 m/s. At the same exact time,
the other person throws a tennis ball straight upward at 16 m/s. How long after the first tennis
ball lands will the second tennis ball arrive on the ground?
13. A vertical force is applied to a block of mass m that lies on a floor. What happens to the
magnitude of the normal force on the block from the floor as magnitude F is increased from
zero if force is (a) downward and (b) upward?
14. A passenger of mass 72.2 kg stands on a platform scale in an elevator cab.
a) Find a general solution for the scale reading on the vertical motion of the cab.
b) What does the scale read if the cab is stationary or moving upward at a constant velocity
of 0.5 m/s?
c) What does the scale read if the cab accelerates upwards at 3.2 m/s 2 and downwards at 3.2
m/s2 ?
d) During the upward acceleration, in part (c), what is the net force on the passenger?