Swimming Current Physics
A swimmer is capable of swimming 0.60 ni/s in still water. (a) If she aims her body directly across a 55-m-wide river whose current is 0.50 m/s, how far downstream (from a point opposite her starting point) will she land? (b) How long will it take her to reach the other side?
In this problem, the swimmer is trying to cross a river with a current while swimming straight across. Since she aims directly across the river, the current will carry her downstream as she swims.
(a) To find how far downstream she'll land, calculate the time it takes her to swim the 55-meter width of the river. During this time, the river's current pulls her downstream at 0.50 m/s, and you can calculate the distance by multiplying the current's speed by the time spent crossing.
(b) To find how long it takes her to reach the other side, divide the river's width (55 m) by her swimming speed in still water (0.60 m/s). This gives the total time she spends swimming across the river.
Related Problems
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Find the height of the building
Find the impact velocity of the ball
A key falls from a bridge that is 45 m above the water. It falls directly onto a model boat moving with constant velocity that is 12 m in front of the point of impact when the key is released. What is the speed of the boat?
In a rescue attempt, a hovering helicopter drops a life preserver to a swimmer being swept downstream by a river current of a constant velocity v. The helicopter is at a height of 9.8 m. The swimmer is 6.0 m upstream from a point directly under the helicopter when the life preserver is released. It lands 2.0 m in front of the swimmer. How fast is the current flowing? Neglect air resistance.
13.7 m/s
9.8 m/s
6.3 m/s
2.8 m/s
A river is 300 m wide and the water flows downstream, exactly south, at 4 m/s. If a swimmer, moving at exactly 6 m/s, attempts to swim across the river:
At what direction should the swimmer orient himself to swim straight across the river in the east direction?
How long will it take the swimmer to across the river?