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Falling


seamonkey10999

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I trying to work out the speed of a falling object and hope you can help. Apologies, it may be a bit simple and in the wrong forum, anyhow appreciate your help.

If a car drives off a cliff, the cliff is 550 ft in height, the car weights 1,550 kg literally rolls off what would be the speed of the vehicle at the impact opposite to driving the vehicle 110mph off the cliff. How would I calculate the speed at impact.  I would understand the lateral speed would drop off proportional to the height. 

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2 minutes ago, seamonkey10999 said:

How would I calculate the speed at impact. 

Is this homework?

The speed is made up of two components: the horizontal speed and the vertical speed.

The horizontal speed is simple: if the vehicle just rolls of the cliff, it will be approximately zero. If it drives off the cliff at 110 mph, then it will be 110 mph.

The vertical speed can be calculated from the kinematic equations relating time, acceleration, velocity and distance: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/one-dimensional-motion/kinematic-formulas/a/what-are-the-kinematic-formulas

They also have a video that, from the tile, appears to be about the exact question you ask

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