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For this problem, ignore air resistance.

You are to fire a rifle that shoots a particular bullet at 460 m/s at a target that is 45.7 m away and level with the rifle. Assuming that the acceleration due to gravity is 9.80 m/s², how high above the target must the barrel of the rifle be aimed such that the bullet hits the target?

4 answers

The real question is how far the bullet falls vertically during the trip.

timeinair=45.7m/460m/s

how far does an object fall in that time?

h=1/2 g t^2
That's not entirely correct... That would only be true if the rifle was fired horizontally, giving the x component 460 m/s towards the target.

However, that 460 m/s has some UPWARD y component too, reducing the x component by some amount...

Thanks,
Steven
Forget that upward component. Too fast to be significant. look at 460 cos (angle up)
the cosine of your angle up will be essentially 1 and the sine will be about 0
I would like to forget the upward component, as the object IS in fact a bullet fired at a fast velocity from a gun towards a target not too far away.

However, we're graded on the correctness of our problem solving. And, additionally, this factor WOULD become an issue if we were firing a marshmallow gun or a pea shooter at this distance, or if you were firing a sniper rifle at a target over a mile away.

Thanks,
Steven