A bird rests on a telephone wire 25 feet above the road after feasting on juicy bugs all morning. At precisely 9 a.m. the bird sees a bicyclist a mile away approaching at 15 mph, enjoying the level road and lack of wind. What time should the bird poop in order to hit the cyclist’s shoulder 5 feet above the ground?
I haven’t figured out the answer yet, but the bird got it right on.
9:03:59:47am ?
20 feet = 6.096 meters until splat; which is 0.6216s^2, divided by standard gravity 9.8066 m/s^2 which is 0.778 seconds, which is 0:47 of a second… and a mile takes 4 minutes, so 0:47 of a second or 0.778 seconds) before 4 minutes? Shoot… not sure if I remember this right. “A” for “effort”, if I do say so myself.
Oops, I meant 9:03:59:13am?
eww! That’s gross. I wish I could say that has never happened to me. Well, actually I was walking instead of riding a bike, so I guess your bird is really good at calculating velocity. Better luck next time!
You crack me up! Does motion affect the splat? because once I was sitting on the grass and it was bad!!
Your high school physics teacher was impressed with this entry. Wish I could say that I was anywhere close to Meg’s reply.
There’s no proof my answer is right
I haven’t taken any physics since like my freshman year in college (>10 years ago!)