Afox is 7 meters from the base of a tree that is 15 m tall. a nest of owls is at the top of the tree. one of the owlets tosses a piece of meat horizontally from the nest at 1.2 m/s. the fox runs to catch the meat just before it hits the ground. what is the speed of the fox just as he catches the meat?

Refer to the diagram shown below.

In this analysis, wind resistance is ignored, and g = 9.8 m/s².

The meat falls with zero vertical velocity, therefore the time, t, before the meat hits the ground is


If the fox catches the meat before it hits the ground, then the fox should travel a horizontal distance d in the same time that the meat travels a horizontal distance (7 -d).
The meat travels a distance of 
7 - d = (1.2 m/s)*(1.75 s) = 2.1 m
or
d = 4.9 m

Let v =  velocity of the fox when it catches the meat.
If the acceleration of the fox is a m/s², then
v = 1.75a
Also,


  2.37 m/s  (nearest hundredth)