Question

According to the commercial shown in class, the car dropped from the 5th floor of a building hits the ground at 40[mi/h]. Lets see if this is true: if the car falls at a distance of 50[ft], determine
a)its speed at the time of impact
b)its acceleration during impact

Answer 1

40 mi/h = 58.67 ft/s
\[v _{f}=\sqrt{2gh}=\sqrt{2(32.2ft/s^{2})(50ft)}=56.7ft/s\]so pretty close. To calculate the acceleration during impact you would need to know the time of ompact so that you could use impulse-momentum theorem.... but you don't give that. Without it you're out of luck for part b)