Lab 5 – Feed the Monkey (Projectile Motion) Vocabulary: acceleration, free fall, trajectory, vector, velocity Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gnome to help feed the monkey): The billionaire Veda Hussert has invented a banana cannon. She aims the cannon at the wildlife preserve to feed monkeys high in the trees. Simply the sound of her voice frightens the monkeys, and when she fires a banana, they drop out of the tree. Unfortunately, the noise of the cannon scares them. So, where should Veda aim to hit a falling monkey? (Circle your choice:) 1. Directly at the monkey 2. Above the monkey 3. Below the monkey Explain your choice: Click or tap here to enter text:
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct choice is 2. Above the monkey.
When Veda fires the banana cannon at the monkey, the banana will follow a curved path due to gravity, which causes it to fall as it travels. This is because projectiles (like the banana) are affected by gravity and will experience downward acceleration, causing their trajectory to curve.
In the scenario, when the monkey hears the cannon’s noise, it drops out of the tree. The key here is that both the banana and the monkey are subject to the same acceleration due to gravity. The banana’s velocity will decrease in the vertical direction as it travels through the air, but it still maintains its horizontal velocity as long as there is no air resistance. The monkey, having dropped from the tree, is also accelerating downward with gravity. This means that both the monkey and the banana will fall at the same rate once the banana leaves the cannon.
If Veda aims directly at the monkey, the banana will miss because the monkey is falling while the banana is traveling in a straight line. Since the monkey is accelerating downward, Veda needs to aim above the monkey to account for the distance it will fall during the banana’s flight time. By aiming above the monkey, the banana will intersect with the monkey’s falling path, allowing it to hit the monkey mid-air.
In essence, aiming above ensures that the banana reaches the falling monkey before it hits the ground, effectively “intercepting” the monkey’s trajectory in free fall.
