The Ultimate Slip-and-Slide Ride: Impossible?
Now that looks like fun. Of course we intuitively know it's completely fake, and involves the usual videographic sleight of hand, but let's apply some basic physics to the situation to check our intuition. First of all, the "diver," after being launched off the ramp, travels a horizontal distance of at least 50 meters before landing in the pool. Assuming a 45-degree launch angle, which gives us the maximum trajectory if we neglect air resistance (air resistance will only make matters worse), let's calculate the absolute minimum speed we need to leave the ramp to stick the landing. What we have here is a good old-fashioned projectile! Our projectile (again neglecting air friction) will have a constant velocity in the horizontal direction. Thus we get a horizontal motion equation as follows: Δx = v0 cos (45) t where Δx is the horizontal distance of 50 meters, v0...