A sharpshooter shoots the bullet horizontally over level ground with a velocity of 300m/s. At the instant that the bullet leaves the barrel, its empty shell casing falls vertically and strikes the ground with a vertical velocity of 5m/s.

Question

How far does the bullet travel?

Answer 1

is 153m the correct answer?

Answer 2

The fall time of the bullet is
t = (5 m/s)/g = 0.510 s

If you assume the bullet does not slow down, it travels 300 m/s * 0.510 s = 153 m

So you are correct.

The bullet actually will slow down somewhat due to aerodynamic drag, but neglecting the drag on bullets is not a bad assumption.

Answer 3

drwls isn't quite right. Neglecting bullet drag is a very bad assumption because 1. Bullets are very light (they do most of their damage from speed, which increases kinetic energy exponentially) and 2. Drag affects fast objects exponentially more.

However, the question's theme allows us to neglect drag.

Find the solution at #4 here:
aquantaday.wordpress.com/grade-12-physics-challenge-problems-1-kinematics/
684 m is the correct answer if you do not account for drag.

Answer 4

My mistake, the answer is not 684 m in your case, my problem was the same but with speed changed. But you can sub your figure into my calculations to find the right answer, which is 153 m