The Package Drop
In this movie, you see a simulation of a package being dropped by an airplane that is flying with a constant velocity in the horizontal and no velocity in the vertical. This situation is very similar to an object sent horizontally off a cliff. There are several key pieces of information that are always true in this situation if we are ignoring the effects of air friction.
- The falling object always begins with an initial velocity of zero in the
vertical (Y) direction.
So - The horizontal velocity (
) of the object is always the same as it was the instant it started to fall. (the same as the airplane's velocity)
- Since air friction is being ignored, there is nothing to change the
horizontal velocity of the falling object. So
which means that the horizontal velocity (
) would be constant. Notice how the horizontal spacing is the same between each image of the package. You should also notice that the package is always right beneath the airplane.
- The vertical acceleration is the acceleration due to gravity (
). Which causes the package's velocity to increase as it falls. Notice the increasing vertical spacing between each image of the package.
- The horizontal displacement traveled by the package (
) after being dropped is dependant only upon the height of the airplane (
) and the velocity of the airplane upon dropping the package (
).