A while ago I had a discussion with someone about the speed of an object when it hits the ground. When does an object hit the ground faster:
- When you launch the object to the sky so it can fall down;
- Or when you launch the object to the ground so it doesn't have to deal with much air resistance.
The attraction “The Booster” has an arm that has a constant speed (about 120 km/h) is about 80M high and undergoes full revolutions.
In this situation the cart gets disattached at 90 degrees.
I think that the cart hits the ground with a higher speed when it's launched to the ground because of:
- The air resistance, when you launch it to the sky it has a longer path to travel, so it needs to travel through much more air.
- The cart has the same initial speed, when you travel a shorter path there will be less to slow the cart down;
- Nothing provides the cart with additional energy;
- I guess that the "final gravity" is the same.