Question

An automobile, moving to fast on a horizontal stretch of mountain road, slides off the roads, falling into deep snow 43.9 m below the road and 87.7 m beyond the edge of the road
A) how long did the auto take to fall?

Answer 1

The kinematic law of motion under the gravity force is given be the following equation:

$$d = v_0t + \dfrac{gt^2}{2}$$

where $d = 43.9 m$ is traveled distance, $v_0 = 0m/s$ is vertical initial speed, $g = 9.8 m/s^2$ and $t$ is a time of falling.

Expressing $t$ and substituting numerical values, get:

$$t = \sqrt{\dfrac{2d}{g}} = \sqrt{\dfrac{2\cdot 43.9}{9.8}} \approx 3.17s$$

Answer. 3.17 s