You are standing a far ways away from the base of a tree from which a monkey is hanging on a branch exactly 5 meters above the ground.

This monkey has psychic relaxation syndrome, which means that as soon as the gun goes off, he will let go of the tree branch without realizing it and fall down.

The problem with this is the monkey will fall, and not be where it was before you shot the gun, so it will be in another spot when the bullet is next to the tree. How far below the spot where the monkey's tail is before the shot is fired should you aim so the monkey's tail will be hit regardless of its "letting go" of the tree branch?

(Assume there is zero air resistance.)

As I remember the problem from ~~ years ago the monkey drops as soon as it sees the flash from the gun.

My physics professor had a really cool contraption set up in the front of the lecture hall.  The 'monkey' was a stuffed toy monkey dangling from an electromagnet.  The 'gun' was a small air cannon with a laser sight trained directly on the monkey.  The projectile was large enough and travelled slowly enough to be seen.

Both monkey and gun were on the same electical switch so the monkey would begin falling at the instant the gun fired.

I remeber the arc of the projectile and then seeing it hit the monkey squarely.  It was an impressive demonstration.

In your p.c. version you would aim right for the tail.

The principle is that gravity affects everything the same way.

-Jer

Posted by Jer on 2004-05-28 12:18:29