Question 1182537
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The man is walking 4 m/s. Let's find out how long it takes him to walk 10 meters.
distance = rate*time
time = distance/rate
time = (10 m)/(4 m/s)
time = (10/4) sec
time = 2.5 sec
It takes 2.5 seconds for him to walk the 10 m distance.


Now let's see how long it takes the pot to fall 20 meters. We'll use this formula
y = 0.5*g*t^2
where,
y = vertical distance the object falls
g = acceleration of gravity
t = elapsed time in seconds
We'll ignore air friction. 


In this case,
y = 20
g = 9.81 approximately


So,
y = 0.5*g*t^2
20 = 0.5*9.81*t^2
20 = 4.905*t^2
4.905t^2 = 20
t^2 = (20)/(4.905)
t^2 = 4.07747196738022
t = sqrt(4.07747196738022)
t = 2.0192751093846
t = 2.02


It takes about 2.02 seconds for the pot to fall 20 meters


Since the flower pot's time frame (2.02 seconds) is less than that of the man's overall time frame (2.5 seconds), this means the falling object will hit the ground before the man arrives directly underneath the object. So the object will not hit the man.


This is based on a few assumptions:
1) The pot only hits the man if he traveled exactly 10 meters
2) The pot does not hit his toes


Edit: the man's height is never used. We ignore it because the pot hit the ground before the man arrived at his marker.
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