Off a Cliff
Q. A hiker at the edge of a cliff 490 m highm throws a stone horizontallym/s at 15 m/sm/s. Taking g as 9.8 m/s²m/s², how long does it take to reach the groundm, in seconds?
Inputs
Outputs
time?
How it's solved
Solved with Projectile
Given
- m/s
- m/s²
- m/s from “horizontally”
- m from “490 m high”
- m from “reach the ground”
Find .
Working
- falling freely(flying, y)
- m/s²
- position after a time(flying, y)
Conclusion
Thrown sideways, the stone starts with no upward speed, so it falls exactly as long as a stone dropped from the same height would. The sideways speed changes where it lands, not when.
The web of concepts
given read from the words equation asked
The Ruby that solves it
The question and its solution are small Ruby files. The engine runs them.
1require_relative "../physics"23question :off_a_cliff do4 kind :numerical5 describes "A hiker at the edge of a cliff 490 m high throws a stone horizontally at %{speed}. Taking g " \6 "as %{gravity}, %{time}, in seconds?"7 given speed: "15 m/s"8 given gravity: "9.8 m/s2"9 asks time: "how long does it take to reach the ground"10end1require_relative "../questions/off_a_cliff"2require_relative "../science/motion_in_a_plane/projectile"34solve :off_a_cliff, using: Projectile do5 objects :stone6 axes :x, :y7 stone.goes(:flying)8 take speed: stone.initial_velocity(along: x), gravity: g9 deduce_from "horizontally", stone.initial_velocity(along: y) => "0 m/s"10 deduce_from "490 m high", stone.initial_position(along: y) => "490 m"11 deduce_from "reach the ground", stone.final_position(along: y) => "0 m"12 time = flying.time_taken13 answer time:, in: "s"14 conclusion "Thrown sideways, the stone starts with no upward speed, so it falls exactly as long " \15 "as a stone dropped from the same height would. The sideways speed changes where it " \16 "lands, not when."17endplayground.rb
1require_relative "../solutions/off_a_cliff"23play_with :off_a_cliff do4 title "Off a Cliff"5endThe laws it drew on
| quantity | written | units | within | from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| volume | — | — | Vectors | |
| mass | — | — | Vectors | |
| speed | — | — | Vectors | |
| density | — | — | Vectors | |
| number of moles | — | — | Vectors | |
| angular frequency | — | — | Vectors | |
| work | — | — | Vectors | |
| current | — | — | Vectors | |
| temperature | — | — | Vectors | |
| pressure | — | — | Vectors | |
| time | s | 0 … 1e+05 | Vectors | |
| power | — | — | Vectors | |
| total path length | — | — | Vectors | |
| energy | — | — | Vectors | |
| gravitational potential | — | — | Vectors | |
| coefficient of friction | — | — | Vectors | |
| charge | — | — | Vectors | |
| acceleration | m/s² | — | Vectors | |
| velocity | m/s | — | Vectors | |
| displacement | m | — | Vectors | |
| angular velocity | — | — | Vectors | |
| force | — | — | Vectors | |
| angular momentum | — | — | Vectors | |
| linear momentum | — | — | Vectors | |
| electric field | — | — | Vectors | |
| average velocity | m/s | — | Vectors | |
| magnetic moment | — | — | Vectors | |
| relative velocity | — | — | Vectors | |
| impulse | — | — | Vectors | |
| first vector | — | 0 … ∞ | Vectors | |
| second vector | — | 0 … ∞ | Vectors | |
| angle between | — | 0 … 3.142 | Vectors | |
| resultant | — | 0 … ∞ | Vectors | |
| resultant direction | — | 0 … 3.142 | Vectors | |
| direction | — | -3.142 … 3.142 | Vectors | |
| x component | — | — | Vectors | |
| y component | — | — | Vectors | |
| position | m | — | Velocity | |
| path length | m | — | Velocity | |
| time taken | s | 0 … 1e+05 | Velocity | |
| average speed | m/s | — | Velocity | |
| starting position | m | — | Velocity | |
| final position | m | — | Velocity | |
| change of velocity | m/s | — | Acceleration | |
| average acceleration | m/s² | — | Acceleration | |
| starting velocity | m/s | — | Acceleration | |
| final velocity | m/s | — | Acceleration | |
| gravity | m/s² | — | UniformAcceleration | |
| displacement of stone during flying along x | m | — | ||
| position of stone at end of flying along x | m | — | ||
| position of stone at start of flying along x | m | — | ||
| displacement of stone during flying along y | m | — | ||
| position of stone at end of flying along y | m | — | ||
| position of stone at start of flying along y | m | — | ||
| average velocity of stone during flying along x | m/s | — | ||
| time taken of flying | s | 0 … 1e+05 | ||
| average velocity of stone during flying along y | m/s | — | ||
| average speed of stone during flying | m/s | — | ||
| path length of stone during flying | m | — | ||
| change of velocity of stone during flying along x | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of stone at end of flying from ground along x | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of stone at start of flying from ground along x | m/s | — | ||
| change of velocity of stone during flying along y | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of stone at end of flying from ground along y | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of stone at start of flying from ground along y | m/s | — | ||
| average acceleration of stone during flying along x | m/s² | — | ||
| average acceleration of stone during flying along y | m/s² | — | ||
| acceleration of stone during flying along x | m/s² | — | ||
| acceleration of stone during flying along y | m/s² | — | ||
| velocity of ground at start of flying from ground along x | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of ground at start of flying from ground | m/s | — | ||
| direction of ground at start of flying from ground | — | -3.142 … 3.142 | ||
| velocity of ground at start of flying from ground along y | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of ground at end of flying from ground along x | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of ground at end of flying from ground | m/s | — | ||
| direction of ground at end of flying from ground | — | -3.142 … 3.142 | ||
| velocity of ground at end of flying from ground along y | m/s | — | ||
| velocity of stone at start of flying from ground | m/s | — | ||
| direction of stone at start of flying from ground | — | -3.142 … 3.142 | ||
| velocity of stone at end of flying from ground | m/s | — | ||
| direction of stone at end of flying from ground | — | -3.142 … 3.142 | ||
| displacement of stone during flying | m | — | ||
| position of stone at end of flying | m | — | ||
| position of stone at start of flying | m | — | ||
| average velocity of stone during flying | m/s | — | ||
| change of velocity of stone during flying | m/s | — | ||
| average acceleration of stone during flying | m/s² | — | ||
| acceleration of stone during flying | m/s² | — |