A bullet traveling 700 m/s horizontally hits a target 150 m away. How far does the bullet fall before it hits the target?

What class are you taking in high school? What is your School Subject?

Does it matter Reed? He just wants some help. Stop nitpicking

Reed is not nit-picking. He's showing the student the most effective way of using Jiskha. Some of our volunteer tutors only look at the posts with subject lines in their area of expertise.

To find out how far the bullet falls before hitting the target, we can use the equations of motion. The horizontal velocity of the bullet remains constant at 700 m/s throughout its flight, so we don't need to consider it in this case.

The equation we need to use is the vertical motion equation:

d = (1/2) * g * t^2,

where:
d is the vertical distance the bullet falls,
g is the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.8 m/s^2),
t is the time it takes for the bullet to hit the target.

To find the time of flight (t), we can use the horizontal distance traveled (150 m) and the horizontal velocity (700 m/s):

t = d / v,

where:
v is the horizontal velocity of the bullet.

Plugging in the values:

t = 150 m / 700 m/s.

Simplifying:

t ≈ 0.2143 seconds.

Now, we can find the vertical distance (d) using the equation:

d = (1/2) * g * t^2.

Plugging in the values:

d = (1/2) * 9.8 m/s^2 * (0.2143 seconds)^2.

Simplifying:

d ≈ 0.2207 meters.

Therefore, the bullet falls approximately 0.2207 meters before hitting the target.