Question

Having a question about the equation:
h = 1/2(gt^2).

There is a question refering to a car which drives off a cliff and the answer to the question is by using the equations;

x = vt
and
h = 1/2(gt^2)

My confusion comes in where we use the second equation. Does the solution take in account for the distance the car moves in y-direction?

Answer 1

Since the car moves off the cliff it will take a parabolic path . Which will have both x and y displacement . X tells you after t sec later how far along the horizontal line is the car from the cliff and y component tells you how below is the position of the car from the release point . Since there is no acceleration along the x axis the distance x = Vt and along y direction since there is gravity y = ut + 0.5gt2 . Since u that is the initial vertical component of velocity is zero hence , y = 0.5gt2