The tops of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, are 227m above the water. Suppose a worker drops a wrench from the top of a tower. If the average force of air resistance is 22% of the force of free fall, with what speed will the wrench hit the water?

Answer 1

78% of the available potential energy will be converted to kinetic energy. The rest will be converted to frictional heating.

0.78 M g H= (M/2) V^2

where V it the velocity when it hits the water and H = 227 m

V = sqrt(1.56 g H) = 58.9 m/s