Question

A firefighting crew uses a water cannon that shoots water at 25.0 m/s at a fixed angle of 53.0° above the horizontal. The fire-fighters want to direct the water at a blaze that is 10.0 m above ground level. How far from the building should they position their cannon? There are two possibilities; can you get them both? (Hint: Start with a sketch showing the trajectory of the water.)

Answer 1

Answer:

8.8 m and 52.5 m

Explanation:

The vertical component and horizontal component of water velocity leaving the hose are

$v_v = vsin(\alpha) = 25sin(53^0) = 25*0.8 = 19.97 m/s$

$v_h = vcos(\alpha) = 25cos(53^0) = 25*0.6 = 15 m/s$

Neglect air resistance, vertically speaking, gravitational acceleration g = -9.8m/s2 is the only thing that affects water motion. We can find the time t that it takes to reach the blaze 10m above ground level

$s = v_vt + gt^2/2$

$10 = 19.97t - 9.8t^2/2$

$4.9t^2 - 19.97t + 10 = 0$

$t= \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}$

$t= \frac{19.9658877511823\pm \sqrt{(-19.9658877511823)^2 - 4*(4.9)*(10)}}{2*(4.9)}$

$t= \frac{19.9658877511823\pm14.24}{9.8}$

t = 3.49 or t = 0.58

We have 2 solutions for t, one is 0.58 when it first reach the blaze during the 1st shoot up, the other is 3.49s when it falls down

t is also the times it takes to travel across horizontally. We can use this to compute the horizontal distance between the fire-fighters and the building

$s_1 = v_ht_1 = 15*0.58 = 8.8 m$

$s_2 = v_ht_2 = 15*3.49 = 52.5m$