Physics Challenge for Boris Korsunsky, Column Editor

Weston High School, Weston, MA 02493

Teachers and Students [email protected]

Solutions to November 2011 Challenge

w 2t or NOT 2t?
A projectile launched from the ground explodes into three 5 2
fragments of equal mass at the top point of the trajectory. h= gt .
One of the fragments lands t seconds after the explosion; 4
two other fragments land simultaneously 2t seconds after (Contributed by Salvatore Basile, Università degli Studi di
the explosion. How high above the ground does the projec- Palermo, Palermo, Italy)
tile explode?
We would also like to recognize the following contribu-
tors:
Solution: I will call h the height above the ground at
which the projectile explodes and vjy (j=1, 2, 3) the y- Sharmila Balamurugan, undergraduate student (Women’s
component of the velocity at the moment of the explo- Christian College, Chennai, India)
sion for the three fragments. I will label with 1 the Tyriek Bayne, student (John Tyler Community College,
fragment which lands after t seconds. Midlothian, VA)
Since the landing time depends only on the y-compo- Wojciech Bizoń (Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland)
nent of the velocity at the moment of the explosion, we
have: Philip Blanco (Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA)
v3y = v2y . Jim Bock (Conestoga Valley High School)
Phil Cahill (Lockheed Martin Corp., North Yorkshire,
We then need only the equations for fragments 1 and United Kingdom)
2, stating that at landing time the y-coordinate will be Daniel Cartin (Naval Academy Preparatory School,
equal to 0: Middletown, RI)
1 David Casey, student (Shenandoah Valley Governor’s
h + v1 y t − gt 2 = 0 School, Fishersville, VA)
2
Vincent Chiu, student (Trinity Grammar School,
1 Summer Hill, Sydney, NSW, Australia)
h + v2 y (2t ) − g (2t ) 2 = 0.
2 David A. Cornell, emeritus (Principia College, Elsah, IL)
Since the masses of the three fragments are equal, and Don Easton (Lacombe, Alberta, Canada)
the y-component of the projectile momentum at the Oscar Escucha García, student (Escuela Politécnica
moment of the explosion is equal to 0 (it explodes at Superior, University of Seville, Seville, Spain)
the top of the trajectory), the momentum conservation
law reads: Michael Ferner (Middlesex County College, Edison, NJ)
v1y + v2y + v3y = 0. Fernando Ferreira (Universidade da Beira Interior, Co-
vilhã, Portugal)
The solution of the above equations is then: Ángel García Rivera, student (Escuela Politécnica Supe-
3 rior, University of Seville, Seville, Spain)
v1 y = − gt
4 Josh Gates (Tatnall School, Greenville, DE)
3 Fredrick P. Gram (Cuyahoga Community College, Cleve-
v2 y = v3 y = gt.
8 land, OH)
The height above the ground at which the projectile Norge Cruz Hernández (University of Seville, Spain)
explodes is then: Gerald E. Hite (TAMUG, Galveston, TX)
Charles Holbrow (Colgate University, Hamilton, NY)

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 49, 2011

Art Hovey, retired (Milford, CT) Michael Rapport (Anne Arundel Community Col-
José Ignacio Íñiguez de la Torre (Universidad de Salamanca, lege, Arnold, MD)
Salamanca, Spain) Pascal Renault (John Tyler Community College,
David Jones (Florida International University, Miami, FL) Midlothian, VA)
Luck Kostas (H DOMI, Rhodes, Greece) Gregory Ruffa (University of Minnesota, Minne-
apolis, MN)
José Costa Leme (High School Lanheses, Viana do Castelo,
Portugal) Jorge Salazar (Sección Física, Pontificia Universidad
Católica del Perú, Perú)
Mark Lenfestey (Homestead High School, Fort Wayne, IN)
Robert Schwartz (Harriton High School, Rosemont,
Mitchell Lipka (Bristol Eastern HS, Bristol, CT)
PA)
Stephen McAndrew (Macquarie University, Sydney,
Jason L. Smith (Richland Community College,
Australia)
Decatur, IL)
Toru Mihama, student (Tatnall School, Greenville, DE)
Cássio dos Santos Sousa, student (Colégio Objetivo,
Daniel Mixson (Naval Academy Preparatory School, São Paulo, Brazil)
Newport, RI)
Clint Sprott (University of Wisconsin – Madison,
Carl E. Mungan (U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, WI)
MD)
Carl Weaver (Georgia Institute of Technology, Al-
Israel Pérez Luna, student (Escuela Politécnica Superior, pharetta, GA)
Seville, Spain)
Thorsten Poeschel (Cluster of Excellence, Engineering of Many thanks to all contributors and we hope to
Advanced Materials, Erlangen, Germany) hear from you in the future!