Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

) Occasionally, people can survive falling large distances if the surface they l

ID: 1661716 • Letter: #

Question

) Occasionally, people can survive falling large distances if the surface they land on is soft enough. During a traverse of Eiger's infamous Nordvand, mountaineer Carlos Ragone's rock anchor gave way and he plummeted 499 feet to land in snow. Amazingly, he suffered only a few bruises and a wrenched shoulder. Assuming that his impact left a hole in the snow 3.8 ft deep, estimate his average acceleration as he slowed to a stop (that is while he was impacting the snow) (Note, for this question the positive direction is defined as down.)

Explanation / Answer

Solution-

499 feet = 152.095 m

3.8 ft = 1.15824 m

velocity for fre falling = sqrt( 2 * g * h)

= sqrt(2 * 9.81 * 152.095)

= 54.63 m/s
acceleration = (velocity^2) / 2 * sistance

= 54.63^2 / 2*1.15824

=1288.35 m/s^2