A plane is flying at an altitude of 8000 m at a speed of 250 m/s. At what horizontal distance ahead of its target must a water balloon be released to strike the target on the ground (neglecting air resistance)?

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Answer 1 · 2018-02-28T12:59:52

10 km

We can get the time of flight from the vertical component:

#sf(s=1/2"g"t^2)#

#sf(t=sqrt((2s)/g)=sqrt((2xx8000)/9.81)=40color(white)(x)s)#

The horizontal component of velocity is constant so:

#sf(d=v_(x)xxt=250xx40 = 10000color(white)(x)=10color(white)(x)km)#