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Question for math experts


Lefty

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A lovelorn falang in Jomtien decides to end it all, leaping from his 22nd floor balcony to the pavement below. His balcony is eighty metres above the pave. As he leaves the balcony he has 4 more seconds to live, before he becomes messily unstuck.

At what speed does he hit the pavement?

a) 16 metres/second

bee) 0 m/sec

c) 20 m/sec

d) 40 m/sec.

HINT: a simple formula tells us that you can get the answer by using (somehow) the fact that

rate of change in height = initial height - 5 x journey time (squared)

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If it takes him 4 seconds to fall eighty metres & he is still accelerating, the only answer that fits is 40m/second.

Very clever Paccers seeing that only one answer that makes sense! :sign0184:

Assuming constant acceleration, using math formulas, the calculation shows acceleration of 10 meters per second squared and a final velocity of 40 meters per second.

Using physics formulas you'd need to know the mass of the guy's ass. :movethatass:

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OK lads, well done. Both paccers & the doggster came up with correct choice.

I made up the numbers so it'd sound about right and be easy to calculate, but what amazes me is the startling sickening reality of it all.

When these guys take the leap, as quite a few have done over the years (does Pattaya do that to people?), I am forced to sit quietly and draw breath at what a shit of a way it is to go out. Think about it: you leave the balcony with no velocity, but accelerate with gravity - as our lads pointed out - till you hit the pavement with an instantaneous speed of 40 m/sec. That's equal to 90 miles/hour or 144 km/hour, the speed of a rather high damage freeway or highway collision.

By the way, while I'm at the lectern, the correct way to calculate the answer is to differentiate the equation I gave you as hint, then substitute for t = 4. (Remember that stuff? We did it in Maths A when we were 15 or so.) The one who gave us the maths was - as his friend John Locke, the philosopher called him - "the incomparable Mr Newton."

During the plague years of 1665-66 the undergrads at Cambridge were sent home to the countryside for safety. Mr Newton, who had not even finished his degree yet, spent the time rather productively. He gave us: his laws of motion; the law of universal gravitation; the complete theory of opticks (as he spelt it); the binomial theorem; and the differential & integral calculus. He was 23 years old.

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