If a bird is traveling 18 m/s carrying a fish from 5.4 m, what is the speed of the fish on impact?

Question

gravity= 9.81 m/s^2 , speed=final velocity
KE=1/2mv^2 PE=mgh MEinitial=MEfinal

mass of fish=2.00 g

i guess that i forgot to mention that i did solve it and got 20.7 m/s, but i was unsure if that was correct, because wouldn't the horizontal velocity be disregarded because horizontal force does not affect vertical force? at least thats what i was always taught, but im not sure if that is correct

Answer 1

If only birds really could fly in vacuums, but this is physics class world, not real world, so...

In the x direction the fish has a velocity of 18 m/s
This won't change according to Newton's laws.

We are interested in knowing how fast the fish is going when it hits the ground....I assume the bird dropped it.

When the bird is carrying it it has 0 velocity in the y direction.

We know the height it falls from and the acceleration so we can use the equation below to find the final velocity in the y direction

v = sqrt[V^2 + 2hg] where V is the initial velocity in the y direction so

v = sqrt[2*5.4*9.81]
v = 10.293 m/s

We use the pythagorean theorem to add the vectors

speed = sqrt[18^2 + 10.293^2]
speed = 20.735 m/s

Answer 2

h=1/2 g t^2 (from here u can find time)
v_x =18m/s (given)
v_y=g t (u know time from above)
v_total^2=v_x^2+v_y^2 thats it !!!