In: Physics
A 1.25 lbs. measuring tape became dislodged from the belt of a worker on the 48th floor of a building under construction and fell approximately 460 feet hitting another worker who was delivering materials to the project. The worker who was struck and killed was not wearing a hard hat but had one available in his truck. If we assume a deceleration distance of 4”, what was the force in pounds generated by the measuring tape at impact and what is the velocity of the measuring tape at impact?
The final velocity of the measuring tape is
Here, is the acceleration due to gravity, equal to
Putting these in our equation, we get
To find the force when it decelerates, we need to find the deceleration. We can find the deceleration using a similar fomula to above.
. Here, is the distance over which it decelerates, i.e
Putting these in our equation, we get
Since a pound-force is equal to the mass in pounds time the acceleration due to gravity, we'll express our acceleration in terms of gravity.
Therefore, the force exerted by the tape measure is