Question

(20 points) Pressure is a measure of force per unit area or P=F/A. A student is checking the amount of pressure their car exerts upon the road. The car weighs 2.25 tons ( US short ton ). The student finds the dimensions of each tire's footprint on the road is 12.5 cm X 16.5 cm. In pounds per square inch (psi), what is the total pressure the car exerts upon the road?

Answer 1

35.2 ps

Step-by-step explanation:

Hello!

A US short ton is equal to 2 000 pounds, therefore:

2.25 tons = 4500 pounds

Now lets convert the area of each tire footprint:

1 cm = 0.393701 in

12.5 cm = 4.92126 in

16.5 cm = 6.49607 in

Therefore, the area of the footprint is: 31.9688 in^2

Then, the pressure exerted by the car is given by the weigth devided by the total area, that is 4 times the area of the footprint :

4500 /(4 * 31.9688) psi = 35.1906 psi

Rounding to the first tenth

35.2 psi