Question

A tow truck applies a 848 N to a car at a 32.5°angle, and pulls the car 48.7 m in 18.3s. How much power was the truck using to tow the car?

Answer 1

Power is the ratio of work done and the time taken to do the work.

So,

Power = Work Done / Time

Work done is the dot product of force and distance.

So,

Work done = F.d = Fdcos(Ф)
where Ф is the angle between force and displacement. Using the values, we get:

Work done = 848 x 48.7 x cos(32.5) = 34830.04 Joules

So,

Power = 34830.04/18.3 = 1903.28 W

Thus, truck was using 1903.28 Watts to tow the car