The cannon on a battleship can fire a shell a maximum | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for College Physics

Chapter 3 Problem 33

Question

The cannon on a battleship can fire a shell a maximum distance of 32.0 km.

(a) Calculate the initial velocity of the shell.

(b) What maximum height does it reach? (At its highest, the shell is above 60% of the atmosphere—but air resistance is not really negligible as assumed to make this problem easier.)

(c) The ocean is not flat, because the Earth is curved. Assume that the radius of the Earth is \(6.37 \times 10^{3} km\) . How many meters lower will its surface be 32.0 km from the ship along a horizontal line parallel to the surface at the ship? Does your answer imply that error introduced by the assumption of a flat Earth in projectile motion is significant here?

Solution

Step 1 of 4

(a)

Maximum distance or the horizontal range of the shell is given. The equation for horizontal range is \(R=\frac{u^{2} \sin 2 \theta}{g} \ldots(1)\)

u = Initial velocity of the shell

\(\theta\) =  angle of projection of the shell

g =  acceleration due to gravity

Given data:

\(\begin{array}{l}
\mathrm{R}=32.0 \mathrm{~km} \\
\mathrm{R}=32.0 \times 1000 \mathrm{~m} \\
\mathrm{R}=32.000 \mathrm{~m} \\
g=9.8 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s} 2 \\
\theta=45^{\circ}
\end{array}\)

Substitute these values in equation (1),

\(\begin{array}{l}
32,000=\frac{u^{2} \sin \left(2 \times 45^{\circ}\right)}{9.8} \\
u^{2}=32,000 \times 9.8 \\
u=560 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}
\end{array}\)

Therefore, the initial velocity of the shell is 560 m/s.

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full solution

Title College Physics  1 
Author Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs
ISBN 9781938168000

The cannon on a battleship can fire a shell a maximum

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