Standing at the base of one of the cliffs of Mt. Arapiles in Victoria, Australia, a hiker hears a rock break loose from a height of 105 m. He can’t see the rock right away but then does, 1.50 s later. (a) How far above the hiker is the rock when he can see it? (b) How much time does he have to move before the rock hits his head?
Solution:
Part A
We know that the initial height, y_0 of the rock is 105 meters, and the initial velocity, v_0 is zero. We shall solve for the distance traveled by the rock for 1.5 seconds from the initial position first to find the height at detection.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.engineering-math.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2.51.jpg?w=625&ssl=1)
The change in height is
\displaystyle \begin{aligned} \Delta \text{y}&=\text{v}_0\text{t}+\frac{1}{2}\text{at}^2 \\ &=\left( 0 \right)\left( 1.50 \ \text{s} \right)+\frac{1}{2}\left( 9.81\ \text{m/s}^{2} \right)\left( 1.50\ \text{s} \right)^{2}\\ &=0+11.036\ \text{m} \\ &=11.04 \ \text{m} \end{aligned}
So, the rock falls about 11.04 m from the initial height for 1.50 seconds. Therefore, the height of the rock above his head at this point is
\displaystyle \begin{aligned} \text{y}&=\text{y}_{0}-\Delta \text{y} \\ &=105\ \text{m}-11.04\ \text{m} \\ &=93.96 \ \text{m} \end{aligned}
Part B
We shall solve for the total time of travel, that is, from the initial position to his head. Then we shall subtract 1.50 s from that to solve for the unknown time of moving out. The total time of travel is
\begin{aligned} \text{y} & =\frac{1}{2}\text{at}^{2} \\ &\text {Solving for t, we have}\\ \text{t}&=\sqrt{\frac{\text{2y}}{\text{a}}} \\ &=\sqrt{\frac{2\left( 105\ \text{m} \right)}{9.81 \ \text{m/s}^{2}}} \\ &=4.63 \ \text{s} \end{aligned}
Therefore, to move out the hiker has about
\begin{aligned} \text{t}&=4.63 \ \text{s}-1.50\ \text{s}\\ &=3.13\ \text{s} \end{aligned}
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