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two cars are moving towards an intersection. one car is meters north of the intersection and moving towards the intersection at m/s, while the other is meters west of the intersection and moving towards the intersection at m/s. how rapidly are the cars approaching each other seconds later? the cars are getting closer together correct at m/s. enter your answer rounded to 3 decimal places.

User Thedom
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1 Answer

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The cars are approaching each other at a rate of approximately 25.61 m/s.

To find how rapidly the cars are approaching each other, we can calculate their relative velocity. The first car is moving north towards the intersection at 20 m/s, and the second car is moving west towards the intersection at 16 m/s. We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find their combined velocity:

v = √((20 m/s)² + (16 m/s)²)

v = √(400 m²/s² + 256 m²/s²)

v = √(656 m²/s²)

v ≈ 25.61 m/s

So the cars are approaching each other at a rate of approximately 25.61 m/s.

--The given question is incomplete, the complete question is

"Two cars are moving towards an intersection. One car is 170 meters north of the intersection and moving towards the intersection at 20 m/s, while the other is 160 meters west of the intersection and moving towards the intersection at 16 m/s. How rapidly are the cars approaching each other 4 seconds later? The cars are getting Select an answer at m/s."--

User Justrusty
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7.8k points