Question

When entering a freeway from an on-ramp try to:_____

Answer 1

When entering a freeway from an on-ramp, try to:

Accelerate to match the speed of the freeway traffic and merge smoothly into the flow.

Answer 2

When entering a freeway from an on-ramp, use physics to calculate the time it takes for a car to travel up the ramp by drawing a sketch, listing the knowns like initial velocity and acceleration, choosing and solving the appropriate equation, and ensuring the solution is reasonable for typical ramp specifications.

Step-by-step explanation:

When entering a freeway from an on-ramp, the student should be familiar with how to calculate the time it takes for a car to merge into traffic on the freeway ramp, as well as how to solve related physics problems. Here is how to approach such a problem:

1. First, draw a sketch of the situation to visualize the car accelerating on the ramp.
2. List the knowns such as the initial velocity, acceleration rate, and ramp length.
3. To find out how far the car travels in a given time, identify the unknown and choose the appropriate equation. For constant acceleration, the equation s = ut + 0.5at2 can be used, where s is the displacement, u is the initial velocity, a is the acceleration, and t is the time.
4. After selecting the equation, solve for the unknown, check the units, and discuss whether the answer seems reasonable considering the typical freeway on-ramp specifications.

For example, when a car merges into freeway traffic on a 200-m-long ramp with an initial velocity of 10.0 m/s and accelerates at 2.00 m/s2, calculating the time it takes to travel up the ramp is essential for both drivers and traffic engineers.