Some Practice Problems in Constant Acceleration Motion

In the problems below that involve free fall, use 10 m/s2 for the acceleration due to gravity in metric units. It makes the calculation easier. For English units, use 32 ft/s2. Numerical answers are given for each problem. 1. A ball is dropped from a high window. After what time will its speed be 50 m/s? How far will it have fallen by that time? (5 sec, 125 m)

2. A batter hits a fly ball straight up into the air. The catcher catches the ball 6 sec later. How high did the ball go? What was its original speed? This is Canadian baseball, so use metric units. (45 m, 30 m/s)

3. A naughty student throws a water balloon straight down with a speed of 5 ft/s from a window 40 ft above the ground. When will the balloon hit the head of an innocent, 6-ft-tall passerby? What is its speed when it hits? (1.31 sec, 46.9 ft/s)

4. An electron with speed of 104 m/s enters a forbidden region where an electric force tries to push it back along its path with a constant acceleration of 107 m/s2. How far will the electron go into the forbidden region? How long will it be in that region? (5 m, 0.002 sec)

5. A root beer float slides off the end of a 4-ft-high drugstore counter with an initial speed of 3 ft/s. When does it hit the floor? How far (horizontally) from the end of the counter does it land? (0.5 sec, 1.5 ft)

6. A plane flying horizontally at 500 ft/s drops a bomb just as it crosses a coastline. The bomb lands two miles from the coast. At what height is the plane flying? (6690 ft)