Tiger Woods hits a golf ball off freshly cut bermuda grass into a lake. There ma
ID: 582170 • Letter: T
Question
Tiger Woods hits a golf ball off freshly cut bermuda grass into a lake. There may be an alligator in the lake so he needs to be careful. The splash of the ball is 145 meters away from where it was hit. There is no change in y between where it was hit and the splash so the surface of this problem is ’level’. If the angle of inclination of the initial velocity of the ball with respect to the horizontal is 40: What is the time of flight, the time from launch off the grass to landing in the lake? What is the magnitude of the x-component of the initial velocity of the ball? What is the magnitude of the initial velocity of the ball?
Explanation / Answer
The range of the ball R = 145 m
actually range is horizontal distance cove rby the ball therefore = VCos(theta)*(2VSin(theta)) / g
Here Time of flight = 2VSin(theta ) / g
And horizontal component of velocity = VCos(theta)
Hence R = V2 Sin(2*theta) /g
145 = V2 Sin80 / 9.81
V = 38 m/s i.e the magnitude of the initial velocity of the ball.
Now the magnitude of the X component of the velocity = VCos40 = 29.11 m/s
Time of flight = 2VSIn(40) / g
= 4.98 seconds