A bomb is dropped by a fighter plane flying horizontally. To an observer sitting in the plane, the…
A bomb is dropped by a fighter plane flying horizontally. To an observer sitting in the plane, the trajectory of the bomb is a :
straight line vertically down the plane
parabola in a direction opposite to the motion of plane
parabola in the direction of motion of plane
hyperbola
Solution
The bomb after being dropped from the plane will have only horizontal velocity but zero vertical velocity. This scenario is as same as if a body is horizontally projected from the top of a tower, and it hits the ground tracing a parabolic path. Hence, the trajectory of the bomb is also a parabola, in the direction of motion of the plane. But if we look the trajectory with respect to observer sitting in the plane then this looks like straight line vertically down the plane due to same horizontal velocity.