Question

A fox sees a piece of carrion men thrown from a Hawk's Nest and rushes to snatch it. The best is 14.0m high and the carrion is thrown with horizontal velocity of 1.5 m/s. The fox is 7.0m from the base of the tree. What is the magnitude of the fox average velocity of it grabs the carrion in its mouth just as it touches the ground

Answer 1

The y-component of the velocity of the carrion is equal to zero. That being said, the time it takes for the carrion to reach the ground (as close as possible to the fox) can be calculated through the equation,

    d = Vot + 0.5gt²

where d is the distance, Vo is initial velocity (in this case, zero), g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s²). Substituting the known values,

  14 = 0.5(9.8)(t²)
    t = 1.69 seconds

Since the horizontal component of the velocity is 1.5 m/s, the distance from the base of the tree to the point where the carrion will fall is equal to,
    (1.5 m/s)(1.69 s) = 2.535 m

We add this to the given distance of the fox from the base of the tree to determine the distance of the fox from the carrion.
   total distance = 2.535 m + 7 m = 9.535 m

Given that the time it takes for it to travel would only be 1.69 seconds, the speed would then be,
 
   speed = (9.535 m) / (1.69 s) = 5.64 m/s

ANSWER: speed = 5.64 m/s