Question

Mark Watney (Matt Damon in the Martian movie) and Marvin the Martian (Looney Tunes cartoon character) are having an argument on the surface of Mars (negligible air resistance). They are testing out their new potato launcher that fires projectiles at a constant speed. Mark launches his potato at an angle of 60◦ and Marvin launches his identical potato at an angle of 30◦ . Without any calculations try to answer the following questions, and justify each answer.

(A) Which potato lands farther away from the launcher (potatoes are launched from ground level)?

(B) Which potato spends more time in the air before hitting the ground

(C) Which potato has a greater speed just before it hits the ground?

Answer 1