You are planning a winter ski trip to Crystal Mountain for a solid weekend of
downhill shredaing. For those of you have been skiing or snowboarding before
you are probably familiar with the difficulty ratings of ski slopes: green circles,
blue squares, black diamonds, and double black diamonds. What you may not
know is that each of those classifications is based entirely on the steepness of
the slope.
To facilitate the most righteous weekend ever you do some calculations to
determine just how fast you will be going on each slope 5 seconds after
setting off down the hill. Assuming you start with a velocity of zero and have a
mass of 150lbs in all of your ski gear, how fast will you be going down each
slope?
Slope Classification
Green Circle
Blue Square
Black Diamond
Double Black Diamond
Gradient
25%
40%
55%
65%
Velocity after 5
seconds:
(rounded to the nearest
whole number in mph or
m/s)
For 5 points of extra credit on the next exam:
What gradient would be required for the skier to reach
100mph within 5 seconds of dropping down the slope?.
Round your answer to the nearest whole number.