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.)

well, because of the difference betwen the intensity of the gravitational fields (monkey is higher and has a smaller g), the point you would aim would not be exactlley the one you hit. If the shooter would be as high as the monkey, the point would be the exact aim.

The thing is: if the gunner is too far away, the bullet mite fall on the ground before actually reaching the monkey but that's hard to imagine.

the gravity is the same, and the time of the fall is the same for the bullet and monkey, therefore the point aimed would be hit.

There is one small problem: if we supose the thing is in vacuum, the monkey would actually have to be a "space-monkey" and it could not hear the shot(sound traveles in substance)

bibidibabidi boo

Posted by vije on 2004-07-06 03:57:21