Final answer:
Riding your brakes while descending a hill can lead to overheating, due to the conversion of gravitational potential energy into internal energy and heat buildup in the brake material, which reduces stopping power and efficacy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Riding your brakes while descending a hill can cause the brakes to overheat. When going downhill, the brakes convert the truck's gravitational potential energy into internal energy, which increases the temperature of the brake material. Continuous application of the brakes without allowing them to cool can lead to this excessive heat buildup. If the truck had been moving before a steep descent, it's likely that the brake temperature was already elevated above ambient temperature. During the descent, the temperature may rise drastically, potentially above the boiling point of water, and cause the brake material to overheat, resulting in loss of braking efficacy.
This is critical to the safety of truck drivers, as overheated brakes might reduce stopping power due to the reduced friction between the brake pads and rotors. Advanced technologies like regenerative braking convert mechanical energy into electrical energy instead, thereby helping to prevent overheating in systems equipped with such technology.