How to use this equation in real life for accurate results?

Question

In this video, you can use the equation to solve for the distance between the ball being dropped and when it hits the ground. All you need to know is the time it takes and the gravitational acceleration. In this case, it took 5 seconds. Thus, the distance, or the height of the building, is 122.5 meters.

In real life, if you measure the time inaccurately by only a small margin, the result (distance) is completely off. For example, if you measure the time at 5.5 seconds or 6 seconds, the distance would be 148 meters and 176 meters respectively, instead of 122.5 meters.
My question is, when is this equation used in real life? And how do people combat this margin of error?

gandalf61 · Answer

In real life simple surveying techniques will give you a much more accurate estimate of the height of a building than dropping something off it. You measure your distance from the foot of the building, measure the angle between a sight line to the top of the building and the vertical, and use trigonometry to estimate its height. You don’t need access to the building’s roof, plus dropping stuff off tall buildings is not very safe !
The only real life scenario I can think of where you would use time of fall would be if you wanted to roughly estimate the depth of a well or shaft by dropping a stone into it.

How to use this equation in real life for accurate results?

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