Thread: free fall story problem

A rescue package is being dropped out of a helicopter to a stranded group 400 ft below with an approximate angle of depression of 75 degrees. The falling object is at 337.94 ft 2 seconds after leaving the helicopter. It hits the ground at 5.0304 seconds. Create a function that models the height of the package over time.
What type of function would I use for this problem?

Originally Posted by Chica513

A rescue package is being dropped out of a helicopter to a stranded group 400 ft below with an approximate angle of depression of 75 degrees. The falling object is at 337.94 ft 2 seconds after leaving the helicopter. It hits the ground at 5.0304 seconds. Create a function that models the height of the package over time.
What type of function would I use for this problem?

I can't see how this is a "free-fall" problem as the acceleration of the object is not g. Here's how I would approach this.
We can assume that the acceleration is constant, so we can model the height as


We can typically take h0 to be the height at ground level, so set h0 = 0 ft. Then we have


You know that


and


We have two simultaneous equations in v0 and a.

-Dan