Question

A plane drops a package of supplies to a party of explorers, as shown in Figure below. If the plane is traveling horizontally at 40.0 m/s and is 100 m above the ground, where does the package strike the ground relative to the point at which it is released?

Answer 1

Let's first find the time that the package takes to reach the ground:

$$y=\dfrac{1}{2}gt^2,$$ $$t=\sqrt{\dfrac{2y}{g}}=\sqrt{\dfrac{2\times100\ m}{9.8\ \dfrac{m}{s^2}}}=4.52\ s.$$

Finally, we can find distance from the point where the package strike to the point where it is released:

$$x=v_{0x}t=40\ \dfrac{m}{s}\times4.52\ s=180.8\ m.$$