Reckless+Dumping+of+Items+from+Overpass+by+Sophia+Moreno

Road safety does not always pertain to drivers. It can also have to do with any person’s behavior or actions on a street. Reckless behavior of average citizens in this sort of environment can be hazardous to them and others. An example of such activities would be dropping objects from highway overpasses. This person could be trying this to get rid of something, or simply for fun, but either way it can prove dangerous for anyone bellow. While we are not looking at the dynamics of the situation and only the motion, the logic of the matter is that something pushed off an overpass can have a serious amount of force upon impact. It could hit a walking passerby, smash through a car and more. In any of these incidents others can be severely injured or killed. For example, in March of 1990 a man was killed while driving because a 6lb piece of cement (which had been dropped off the overpass above) broke through his car window.
 * Issue:**

Harold T Roads decided it would be fun to drop a bowling ball from a 9m-highway overpass to see if it bounced or broke. Harold is additionally 2m tall. Based on this information, we can calculate how fast the bowling ball would be falling by the time it hits the pavement bellow.
 * Scenario:**



__What we know:__ Overpass height: 32’ Harold’s height: 6’ g (acceleration due to gravity): 9.8m/s2 Initial velocity = 0m/s (rest) t = ? Vf = ?
 * Solving:**

__How to solve it:__ We are trying to find the final velocity (Vf) The equation for that is-



In writing, this translates to mean that the final velocity equals the acceleration multiplied by the time squared, plus the initial velocity. However, this equation has two variables we don’t know, velocity and time. Therefore, there has to be another step before this equation to find time. We can use one of the equations for displacement, using variables we know.



D x just means displacement, which would be 38 (the height of the overpass + the height of Harold). ‘a’ is simply acceleration, but in this case we would use g, acceleration due to gravity. However, the height is right now in feet, and it has to be in meters to correspond with the acceleration. To convert feet to meters, we have to multiply by 0.3048.



Now we can use this number in the equation.



Now based on this data, we can use t to solve the final equation.



To put the final answer into English, if Harold dropped the bowling ball from a 32’ highway overpass, it would hit the ground at a rate of 15.0626 meters per second. 1m/s is about 2.24mph.



Multiply the final velocity by 2.23 to get the approximate mileage of the bowling ball when it hits the ground. That means that the ball would travel at a final velocity of 33.69mph when it hit the ground.

__Now graph these as functions:__



Ignore negative time values. We assume the ball was at rest before t=0

Any car, biker or person hit at 33.69 mph by a bowling ball, would be seriously damaged. If it hit a car or person, it would be moving slightly slower than that because the object is higher than the ground, but all the same the results could get gruesome. Take into account that a car is about 1.5 meters high. If we recalculated using 1.5 meters less for displacement, the bowling ball would hit a car at about 31.44 mph. The Moral of the story is be smarter, and don’t purposefully push something off an overpass. If there is any chance that you’re falling object could hit something, remember these speeds, and rethink your choices.
 * Conclusion:**


 * Further Investigation:** What would happen if Harold flung the ball off the overpass, instead of just dropping it.

N/A, Initials. (1997). Road injury prevention & litigation journal. //US Roads//, Retrieved from [|http://www.usroads.com/journals/p/rilj/9710/ri971002.htm]
 * Citation:**