Shoot the Monkey 0809 #2

This is a classic physics problem. The story generally goes that a hunter, unaware of projectile motion aims a gun, blowgun, etc. straight at a monkey. The monkey unaware of physics sees the danger and lets go of his perch in the tree the instant the bullet, dart, net, etc leaves the gun. Will the monkey get hit? The answer is always yes, as long as the projectile has enough speed to cover the horizontal distance between the hunter and the monkey. This is independent of the speed of the projectile because gravity pulls both the monkey and projectile at the same rate. The apparatus I have rigged up here uses a modified Beanie Baby (R) for my monkey (he had the beads removed and metal plates added to his head and chest. An electromagnet holds the monkey by the plate in his head and is turned off as the marble projectile breaks the circuit as it leaves the blow gun. As longer as it was aimed properly the monkey will always be hit.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• sully
• russia
• sci
• science
• demo
• demonstration
• reaction
• react
• rnx
• physics
• phys
• shoot
• the
• monkey
• projectile
• motion
• sloth
• beanie
• baby
• electromagnet
• kill
• switch
• blow
• gun
• blowgun
• marble
• dart
• bullet