CPM Homework Help : CALC3RD Problem 6-139

Wile E. Coyote is so desperate to catch the Roadrunner that he builds himself a catapult to use on those darn vertical cliffs he is always running into. He figures he will need it to shoot him $500$ meters straight up. How fast must the catapult propel him upwards to reach that height? (Use $–5$ m/sec² for the acceleration due to gravity. As you know, Cartoonland has a different gravitational constant, allowing cartoon characters to fall from great heights without being injured. Do not try this at home.)

Steps:

$\text{Set up a position function: }s(t)=\frac{a_{0}}{2}t^{2}+v_{0}t+s_{0}$

$a_{0} =$ initial acceleration
$v_{0} =$ initial velocity
$s_{0} =$ initial position

Hint:

Notice that the question is asking, 'how fast?'.
Be mindful of units.

Use the eTool below to visualize the problem.
Click the link at right for the full version of the eTool: Calc 6-139 HW eTool