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Hollywood Science
Speed page 1 2 3 4 5 6
Average speed = (initial speed + final speed)/2 for a constant acceleration.

 

Therefore:

average speed =8.375m


The height climbed in 1.675 seconds is then:

8.375 x 1.675 =14m.

To fall 14m due to gravity will take how long? Another 1.67 seconds. So the total time will be approximately 3.3 seconds.

That’s how long you have to make the jump, but is this enough? Can the bus move forwards 50ft in 3.3 seconds? What is the horizontal velocity?

64.95 mph


Therefore in 3.3 seconds the bus would travel

29 x 3.3 = 95.7m (314ft).

No problem: the bus would fly over the hole. We can see the effect of the angle on time and length of jump in this table.

Time
Angle
(degrees)
Horizontal speed (mph
Vertical speed upwards at take off (mph)
Time that the bus is in the air in seconds
Distance of jump in ft
Does the bus make it?
50
2
50
1.7
0.16
25.4
crash
50
5
49.8
4.3
0.39
63.1
boom
50
10
49.2
8.6
0.76
122.8
boom
60
2
60
2.1
0.19
36.8
crash
60
5
59.8
5.2
0.46
90.8
clear
70
2
70
2.4
0.22
49.8
crash
70
5
69.7
6.1
0.54
123.6
clear
80
2
80
2.8
0.25
65
clear
80
5
79.7
6.9
0.62
121.4
clear
90
1
90
1.6
0.14
41.2
crash
90
2
89.9
3.1
0.28
82.3
clear

We haven’t accounted for deceleration due to wind resistance, which is a variable, and could greatly reduce the distance jumped.

Next time you are racing along in a bus trying to prevent a bomb blowing up, take your eyes off Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock. If you want to know if you can scale that gap in the road, get out your calculator!

Rating - 2 out of ten



Bus
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