2D Motion Problems


Practice Problems

 

  1. A bird is flying 30m above the ground at 6m/s forward when it does what birds do.  How far will the care package travel horizontally before it strikes the ground? (2.5s, 14.8m)
  2. A plane is flying 200m above the ground at 20m/s when one of the wheels falls off.  How far will the wheel travel horizontally before it hits the ground? (6.4s, 127.78m)
  3. A bullet is fired horizontally from a height of 1.2m.  It has an initial velocity of 437m/s.  How much will the bullet drop before it hits the target 100m away?  If there was no target, how far would the bullet travel horizontally before it hits the ground? (0.24m, 218.5m)
  4. A ball is launched at an angle.  It has an initial horizontal velocity of 8m/s and an initial vertical velocity of 5m/s.  How high does it go?  How far does it travel horizontally?  (1.27m, 8.2m)
  5. A marble is launched at an angle.  It has an initial horizontal velocity of 12m/s and an initial vertical velocity of 9m/s.  How high does it go?  How far does it travel horizontally? (4.13m, 21.84m)
  6. A rocket is launched and experiences an acceleration of 4m/s^2 for 2 seconds.  The rocket has no parachute to slow its decent.  There is a crosswind blowing west to east causing the rocket to move at 3m/s in that direction during its entire flight.  How far horizontally from the launch pad can you expect to find the rocket when it comes back down? (13.02m)
  7. A cannonball is fired at a 50 degree angle with an initial velocity of 143m/s.  How high does it go?  How far does it travel horizontally? (611m, 2022.2m)
  8. The same cannon from #7 fires a cannonball at a 35 degree angle with the same initial velocity.  How high does it go?  How far does it travel horizontally? (343.23m, 1956.07m)
  9. A stunt woman is planning to run off of a 30m tall building.  She intends to land on a 5m tall airbag.  If she runs off the edge of the building at 7m/s, how far away from the edge of the building should the center of the airbag be placed? (15.8m)
  10. A car is driving at 15m/s when a passenger throws a water balloon straight up out of the sun roof at 8m/s.  Disregarding air resistance, where will the water balloon land?  How far will the car travel before the balloon comes back down?
  11. A potato is shot with an initial velocity of 40m/s at an angle of 60 degrees with the horizontal.  What is its range and maximum height? (141.1 m, 61 m)
  12. A spaceship is in deep space and is equipped with a solar sail and an ion thruster.  Unfortunately due to asteroid damage the solar sail and ion thruster don't point in the same direction.  The solar sail accelerates the ship at 0.025m/s^2 forward.  The ion thruster accelerates the ship at 0.015m/s^2 sideways.  Assuming the space ship starts at rest, after 10 years what distance has the ship traveled? (1.44e15m)