Question

An empty roller coaster car flies off the track at the very top of a high hill with a circular shape. The roller coaster is moving perfectly horizontally as it leaves the track. Which combination of arrows best represents the possible directions of the car’s velocity right as it leaves the track and a second later?
(A) When car leaves track $\to$ , one seconds later $\searrow$
(B) When car leaves track $\to$ , one seconds later $\downarrow$
(C) When car leaves track $\to$ , one seconds later $\to$
(D)When car leaves track $\searrow$ , one seconds later $\searrow$
(E) When car leaves track $\searrow$ , one seconds later $\nearrow$

Answer 1

Hint : In the question, we are going to first see the trajectory of the roller coaster and the impact that it has over the horizontal and the vertical components of the velocity. After that the direction of the arrows are analyzed which further helps to analyze the direction of the velocity of the car.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
In this case, the horizontal component of the velocity will be the same but some velocity in $y -$ direction is also generated.
The direction of the arrow gives the direction of the net velocity at that time. So, at initial time, the direction of the arrow will be in the horizontal direction as there is no vertical velocity. After one second from that, the direction of the arrow will be somewhere between positive $x$ and negative.
Thus, option (A) When the car leaves track $\to$ , one seconds later $\searrow$ is the correct answer.

Note :
The horizontal velocity is given to the coaster on the onset and it continues to remain the same but the vertical velocity goes on changing due to the change in the position of the coaster. $y$ . The velocity has two components, one horizontal and one is vertically downwards.