Question

I let go of a piece of bread from a balcony. A bird flying 5.0 m overhead sees me drop it, and starts to dive straight down towards the bread the instant that I release it. She catches it after it falls 3.0 m. Assuming she accelerates constantly from rest (v0 = 0) at the time I let go of the bread, what is her acceleration? Show your work

Answer 1

This question can be solved using the equations of motion. There are two scenarios where the equations of motion can be used. The first scenario is the free-fall motion of the piece of bread. The second scenario is the uniformly accelerated motion of the bird.

The acceleration of the bird is  "a = 26.13 m/s²".

First, we will calculate the time taken by the bread to fall 3 m. Using the second equation of motion for this free-fall motion:

$h = v_it + \frac{1}{2}gt^2$

where,

h = height fall = 3 m

vi = initial velocity = 0 m/s

g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.8 m/s²

t = time taken = ?

Therefore,

$3\ m = (0\ m/s)t+\frac{1}{2}(9.8\ m/s^2)t^2\\t = \sqrt{\frac{(3\ m)(2)}{9.8\ m/s^2}}\\\\t = 0.78\ s$

The bird took the same time to catch the bread. Now applying the second equation of motion to the bird's motion:

$s = v_it + \frac{1}{2}at^2$

where,

s = distance covered by the bird = 5 m + 3 m = 8 m

vi = initial velocity of the bird = 0 m/s

a = acceleration of the bird = ?

t = time taken = 0.78 s

Therefore, using these values we get:

$8\ m = (0\ m/s)(0.78\ s)+\frac{1}{2}a(0.78\ s)^2\\\\a = \frac{16\ m}{(0.78\ s)^2}$

a = 26.13 m/s²

Learn more about the equations of motion here:

https://brainly.com/question/24018491?referrer=searchResults