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A car travelling at 20ms-1 is brought to rest with a constant deceleration of 10ms^-2. Calculate the distance travelled.

User Pmod
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

To calculate the distance traveled by the car, use the equation: distance = (initial velocity * time) + (0.5 * acceleration * time^2). Set the distance equal to 0 to find the time it takes for the car to come to a stop. Substitute that value back into the distance equation to find the distance traveled.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the distance traveled by the car, we can use the equation:

distance = (initial velocity * time) + (0.5 * acceleration * time^2)

Given that the initial velocity is 20 m/s, the acceleration is -10 m/s^2, and the car is brought to rest, meaning the final velocity is 0 m/s, we can plug in the values:

distance = (20 * t) + (0.5 * -10 * t^2)

This equation represents the distance traveled as a function of time. To find the time it takes for the car to come to rest, we can set the distance equal to 0:

0 = 20t - 5t^2

This is a quadratic equation that can be solved to find the values of t. The positive solution will give us the time it takes for the car to come to a stop. Substitute that value back into the distance equation to find the distance traveled.

User Solar Mike
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