I am so confused! Please help me out!
Aa flea is able to jump straight up about 0.41 m. It has been said that if a flea were as big as a human, it would be able to jump over a 100 story building! When an animal jumps, it converts work done in contracting muscles into gravitational potential energy (with some steps in between). The maximum force exerted by a muscle is proportional to its cross-sectional area, and the work done by the muscle is this force times the length of contraction. If we magnified a flea by a factor of 1000, the cross section of its muscle would increase by 10002 and the length of contraction would increase by 1000. How high would this "superflea" be able to jump? (Don't forget that the mass of the "superflea" increases as well.) The answer is in m.
2006-10-11 11:03:55 · 1 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
F is proportional to the crossectional area, so it's multiplied by 1000. Since the mass is multiplied by 1000, acceleration remains the same.
The Work will be 1000F * 1000, so it will be 1 million times the original amount of work.
d = vi(t) + 1/2at^2, where vi(t) = 0.
d = 1/2 at^2 - the flea still jumps the same distance, despite it's magnification, because the acceleration remains the same.
2006-10-12 03:18:54 · answer #1 · answered by ³√carthagebrujah 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋