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How far could you long jump on the moon? 88 feet?
  | On earth, people are able to long jump roughly 30 feet = 9 meters |
  | How far a person can jump is a combination of how fast they are running when they leave the ground and how long they are in the air. |
  | How long they are in the air depends on how high they jump |
  | Said differently, the higher a person jumps, the longer they are in the air, and thus the further their forward speed caries them |
  | I looked up some footage of the olympics on Google Video and it appears that jumpers are airborn for about 0.8 seconds |
  | 9 metres / 0.8 seconds = 11.25 metres / second = 40 km/h. This speed feels a bit high to me, so perhaps they are airborn for longer than 0.8 seconds, but we can make a reasonable estimation using this figure. |
  | How high do they jump? |
2*t = 0.8 (The total time airborn) t = 0.4 (The time taken to fall from maximal height)
t = sqrt( 2 * d / 9.8 ) t^2 = 2*d / 9.8 d = ( 9.8 * t*t ) / 2 = ( 9.8 * 0.4*0.4 ) / 2 = 0.784 metres (2.57 feet) |
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  | How fast are they moving upward when they leave the ground? |
v = t * a = 0.4 * 9.8 = 3.92 metres/second = 14 km/h |
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  | The force of gravity on the moon is 1/6th that of Earth's |
  | 9.8 / 6 = approx 1.63 m/s/s |
  | How long would it take a jumper to reach their apex if they jumped upward at 3.92 m/s on the moon? |
t = v / g = 3.92 / 1.63 = 2.4 s |
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  | How high would they go if they jumped upward at 3.92 m/s on the moon? |
d = ( 1.63 * t*t ) / 2 = ( 1.63 * 2.4*2.4 ) / 2 = 4.7 metres = 15 feet (!) |
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  | In conclusion, how far, approximately, could a person jump on the moon given a 40 km/h running speed and 2.4s of air time? |
d = v * t = 11.25 m/s * 2.4 s = 27 meters = 88 feet |
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