The "Speed" bus jump

The movie Speed involved a spectacular stunt: a bus moving at 55 mph flew across a 50-foot gap in an elevated highway:

Now, obviously, the pavement at the start of the jump could NOT have been flat; if it were flat, the bus would simply fall and crash into the support of the highway at the other side of the gap.

The excellent crew of Mythbusters decided to try to re-create this jump. They realized that it would be necessary to build a ramp, so that the bus would move upwards as well as forwards at the start of the gap. To make the ramp, they took a standard iso-container (of the sort used to transport goods by train or by truck)

and cut it in half diagonally. They reinforced each half, then set them side-by-side and covered them with plywood.

They then drove a bus (by remote control) onto the ramp ...

... and off into space.

1. What was the angle of the ramp?
2. What was the initial velocity of the bus as it left the ramp?
3. How far should the bus fly through the air
   • until it reached the same height above the ground as the top of the ramp?
   • until it reached the ground?

(The bus veered slightly sideways as it went up the ramp, so it started to fall off the side of the ramp before it really took off.)

If you were involved in the Mythbusters show, would you have given them any advice before they started work on this project?

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.