Module 3 Class Activities
You have landed a summer job as the technical assistant to the director of an adventure movie shot here in Georgia. The script calls for a large package to be dropped onto the bed of a fast moving pick-up truck from a helicopter that is hovering above the road, out of view of the camera. The helicopter is 235 feet above the road, and the bed of the truck is 3 feet above the road. The truck is traveling down the road at 40 miles/hour. You must determine when to cue the assistant in the helicopter to drop the package so it lands in the truck. The director is paying $20,000 per hour for the chopper, so he wants you to do this successfully in one take.
Because parents are concerned that children are learning “wrong” science from TV, you have been asked to be a technical advisor for a science fiction cartoon show on Saturday morning. In the plot, a vicious criminal (Natasha Nogood) escapes from a space station prison. The prison is located between galaxies far away from any stars. Natasha steals a small space ship and blasts off to meet her partners somewhere in deep space. The stolen ship accelerates in a straight line at its maximum possible acceleration of 30 m/s2. After 10 minutes all of the fuel is burned up and the ship coasts at a constant velocity. Meanwhile, the hero (Captain Starr) learns of the escape while dining in the prison with the warden’s daughter (Virginia Lovely). Of course he immediately (as soon as he finishes dessert) rushes off the recapture Natasha. He gives chase in an identical ship, which has an identical maximum acceleration, going in an identical direction. Unfortunately, Natasha has a 30 minute head start. Luckily, Natasha’s ship did not start with a full load of fuel. With his full load of fuel, Captain Starr can maintain maximum acceleration for 15 minutes. How long will it take Captain Starr’s ship to catch up to Natasha’s?
Physics Education Research at UNG 