Question

A motorcyclist sees that the traffic lights are red 40m ahead of her. She is traveling at a velocity of 20ms^-1 and comes to rest at the lights. Find the deceleration she experiences, assuming it’s constant.

Answer 1

The motorcyclist experiences a deceleration of 10 m/s² as she comes to rest at the traffic lights 40m ahead.

Step-by-step explanation:

The problem you're describing involves finding the deceleration of a motorcyclist who is coming to a stop. Since we know the initial velocity (v_i), final velocity (v_f), and the distance (d), we can use the kinematic equation v_f^2 = v_i^2 + 2ad, where a is the acceleration (which will be negative in the case of deceleration) and d is the displacement.

Here, the motorcyclist is initially traveling at 20 m/s and comes to rest, so v_f is 0 m/s, and d is 40 m. Substituting these values into the equation, we get 0 = (20)^2 + 2 * 40.

Solving for , we find:
a = - (20)^2 / (2*40) = -10 m/s²
So, the motorcyclist experiences a deceleration of 10 m/s².