Answered: November of 2014, Christopher Jones…

Advanced Engineering Mathematics

10th Edition

ISBN:9780470458365

Author:Erwin Kreyszig

Publisher:Erwin Kreyszig

Chapter2: Second-order Linear Odes

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1RQ

See similar textbooks

Related questions

Question

In November of 2014, Christopher Jones went
skydiving in western Australia with his instructor
Sheldon McFarlane.
Soon after jumping out of the plane, Christopher
suffered an epileptic seizure and fell out of control
toward the ground at 150 miles per hour.
Once he realized Christopher was in trouble,
Sheldon went into a 180 mile per hour head-first
dive in an attempt to rescue him.
At that point, Sheldon was 5858 feet above the
ground and Christopher was 308 feet below him,
only 5550 feet above the ground.
Thankfully, Sheldon caught up with Christopher and
pulled his parachute about 4000 feet above the
ground and both landed safely.

Your task is to create a system of linear equations that models the descent of each skydiver,
and then solve that system to make sure it accurately represents the information in the story.
The first step is to convert their speeds from miles per hour to feet per second. (It will help to
know that 1 mile = 5280 feet and 1 hour = 3600 seconds.) Show all your steps below.
Christopher’s speed: 150 ?????/
ℎ???
Sheldon’s speed: 180 ?????/
ℎ???
Next we need to write equations for both skydivers. Use the slope-intercept form ?=??+?
for both equations, use the negative of their speeds as the slopes (since they are falling down,
not up) and their altitudes as the y-intercepts.
Christopher’s equation:
Sheldon’s equation:

Graph both equations below and clearly label which one goes with which person.
Lastly, use either substitution or elimination to solve your system of equations to determine the
exact point where the two lines intersect. Keep in mind that in real life they met at about 4000
feet, so your answer should be near that height.
Also explain what the x-value in your solution would mean in real life

Expert Solution