Question

An initially motionless test car is accelerated uniformly to 115 km/h in 8.83 seconds before striking a simulated deer. The car is in contact with the faux fawn for 0.995 seconds, after which the car is measured to be traveling at 60.0 km/h. What is the magnitude of the acceleration of the car before the collision?

Answer 1

We know the equation of motion v = u+ at, where v is the final velocity, u is the initial velocity, a is the acceleration and t is the time taken.

In this case Final velocity before collision = 115 km/hr = 115*5/18 = 31.94 m/s

Time taken by car to reach this velocity = 8.83 seconds

Initial velocity = 0 m/s

v = u +at

31.94 = 0 + a*8.83

a = 3.62
`m/s^2`

So acceleration of car just before collision = 3.62
`m/s^2`