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When a car is at a traffic light, a truck is approaching in the same direction the car is pointed. When the light turns green, the car and truck are at exactly the same point. The truck is moving at a constant 30 m/s. The car accelerates from rest at 2.0 m/s².

A) The car and truck will meet after a certain time.
B) The car and truck will never meet.
C) The car will catch up with the truck.
D) The truck will catch up with the car.

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

The car, accelerating from rest, will eventually catch up with and overtake the truck moving at a constant speed due to its increasing velocity as a result of the acceleration.

Step-by-step explanation:

When analyzing the scenario of a car and a truck at a traffic light where the truck is moving at a constant 30 m/s and the car accelerates from rest at 2.0 m/s², it is possible to determine the motion and interaction between the two vehicles. Since the truck has constant velocity (it does not accelerate), and the car starts from rest with a positive acceleration, the car's velocity will increase over time. Eventually, the car's speed will equal and then surpass that of the truck. Therefore, given sufficient time and distance, the car will catch up with and overtake the truck.

To find out the exact moment when the two vehicles meet, one would set up an equation based on their motions. Since the truck is moving at a constant velocity, the distance it covers is equal to velocity times the time (D_t = 30 m/s * t). For the car, which starts from rest and accelerates, the distance covered follows the equation for motion under constant acceleration (D_c = 0.5 * a * t^2). By equating these two distances, we can solve for the time at which the car catches up with the truck.

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