A collision cart runs off the edge of a lab table that is .95 meters high. How fast did the collision cart leave the tabletop if the cart lands .40 meters from the base of the table?

Question

anonymous · Answer

First figure out the horizontal and vertical component of the velocity just when the body leaves the table. v(vertical) = 0 and v(horizontal) = v
so first calculate the time till which the object reaches ground. It will only depend on vertical component. so h = .5 x 9.81 x t^2. calculate t. And for this much time, the body was in air.
So for this much time, the horizontal distance that it has traveled = v(horizontal) x t
use 2nd eqn and get the value of v(horizontal) and this is the total velocity of the body when it is about to fall.