in the shadows · Physics Brawl 2024 #3

Physics · mechanics

Problem

Consider a street lamp of height

H = 3.2\text{m}

as a point source of light. A person of height

h = 1.8\text{m}

is walking in a straight line directly away from the lamp at a constant speed of

v = 1.5\text{m}\cdot\text{s}^{-1}

. Calculate the acceleration of the top of their shadow.