If a rock climber accidentally drops a 77.5-g piton from a height of 215 meters, what would its speed be just before striking the ground? ignore the effects of air resistance.

Let us list out what we know from the question.

Initial Velocity since the piton is 'dropped'.

Vertical Displacement of the piton D = 215 m

Acceleration due to gravity

Final Velocity

Using the equation, and plugging in the known values, we get

Simplifying by taking square-root on both sides gives us

Thus, the speed of the piton just before striking the ground is 65 m/s.