Question

A police officer is parked by the side of the road, when a speeding car travelling at 50 mi/hrpasses. The police car immediately pursues it, accelerating at a rate of 10 mi/hr per second.The road is fairly busy, so the officer will not go faster than a top speed of 70 mi/hr. How longwill it take before the officer catches up to the speeding car, and how far will it have travelled inorder to do so

Answer 1

a) time taken to catch up with speeding car is 12.25 secs

b) the police car will travel 273.8 m to catch up with the speeding car

Explanation:

Given that;

speed of car
`V_(c)` = 50 mi/hr = 22.352 m/s

acceleration of police car = 10 mi/hr = 4.47 m/s²

`V_(f)` = 70 mi/hr = 31.29 m/s

Now time taken to reach maximum speed is t₁

so

`V_(f)` =
`V_(i)` + at₁

we substitute

31.29 = 0 + 4.47t₁

t₁ = 31.29 / 4.47

t₁ = 7 sec

now

d₁ = 0 + 1/2 × at₁²

d₁ = 0 + 1/2 × 0 + 4.47×(7)²

d₁ = 109.5 m

so distance travelled by the speeding car in time t₁ will be

`d_(c)` =
`V_(c)` × t₁

we substitute

`d_(c)` = 22.352 × 7

`d_(c)` = 156.46 m

now distance between polive car and speeding car

Δd =
`d_(c)` - d₁

Δd = 156.46 - 109.5

Δd = 46.96 m

time taken to cover Δd will be

t₂ = Δd / (
`V_(f)` -
`V_(c)` )

t₂ = 46.96 / ( 31.29 - 22.352 )

t₂ = 46.96 / 8.938

t₂ = 5.25 sec

distance travelled by the police in time t₂ will be

d₂ =
`V_(f)` × t₂

d₂ = 31.29 × 5.25

d₂ = 164.3 m

a) How long will it take before the officer catches up to the speeding car;

time taken to catch up with speeding car;

t = t₁ + t₂

t = 7 + 5.25

t = 12.25 secs

Therefore, time taken to catch up with speeding car is 12.25 secs

b) how far will it have travelled in order to do so;

distance = d₁ + d₂

distance = 109.5 + 164.3

distance = 273.8 m

Therefore, the police car will travel 273.8 m to catch up with the speeding car