Question: Ed and Stede are under attack from a rival pirate ship! They launch a cannonball. The ball is launched at initial speed vo =

Ed and Stede are under attack from a rival pirate ship! They launch a cannonball. The ball is launched at

Ed and Stede are under attack from a rival pirate ship! They launch a cannonball. The ball is launched at initial speed vo = 40 m/s, at an angle = 15 compared to the flat, horizontal ocean, from the ship deck at a height h = 10 m above the water. The rival ship is 150 m away. It is a much larger ship and its deck sits at a height H = 20 m. Stede is not very confident in his cannon firing abilities yet. Can you help Ed do some math to fig- ure out whether Stede's cannonball is going to do anything useful? (a) If you want to find out whether Stede hit the rival ship, what method would you use? Kinematics or energy conservation? Use your chosen method and solve for where the cannonball lands. Did it hit the rival ship? (b) Let's say Stede adjusted the angle of his cannon (Stede did not actually keep track of the angle and cannot report a value) and managed to hit the ship. If you want to find the speed at which the cannonball hits the rival ship's deck (i.e. how much damage does it do?), what method would you use? Kinematics or energy conservation? Discuss the pros and cons, and do whichever one you think is easiest.

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a To determine whether Stedes cannonball hits the rival ship we can use kinematics to solve for the trajectory of the cannonball We know the initial v... View full answer

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