Question

a student throws a heavy red ball horizontally from a balcony of a tall building with an initial speed of v. at the same time, a second student drops a lighter blue ball from the same balcony. neglecting air resistance, which statement is true? the blue ball reaches the ground first. the balls reach the ground at the same instant. the red ball reaches the ground first. both balls hit the ground with the same speed. none of the above statements are true. question 2 (2 points) gravity acts on an object in every direction, speeding it up at 9.8 m/s every second horizontally and vertically. true false

Explanation:

For the first question, the vertical - motion of both balls is a free - fall motion with initial vertical velocity \(v_{0y}=0\) and acceleration \(a = g\) (acceleration due to gravity). Using the equation \(h=v_{0y}t+\frac{1}{2}gt^{2}\), since \(v_{0y} = 0\), \(t=\sqrt{\frac{2h}{g}}\) which depends only on the height \(h\) and \(g\), so they reach the ground at the same time. The red ball has an initial horizontal velocity but it does not affect the vertical motion. For the second question, gravity acts vertically downwards with an acceleration of \(g = 9.8\ m/s^{2}\), not horizontally.

Answer:

1. B. The balls reach the ground at the same instant.
2. False