Question

to start an avalanche on a mountain slope, an artillery shell is fired with an initial velocity of 290 m/s at 53.0° above the horizontal. it explodes on the mountainside 35.0 s after firing. what are the x and y coordinates of the shell where it explodes, relative to its firing point?

Answer 1

So this is easy to calculate when you split the velocity into x and y components. The x component is going to equal cos(53) * 290 and the y component is going to equal sin(53)*290.

The x location therefore is 290*cos(53)*35 = 6108.4m

The y location needs to factor in the downwards acceleration of gravity too, which is 9.81m/s^2. We need the equation dist. = V initial*time + 0.5*acceleration*time^2.

This gives us d=290*sin(53)*35 + (0.5*-9.81*35^2)=2097.5m

So your (x,y) coordinates equals (6108.4, 2097.5)