Question

Maralena is driving on an interstate going 80 miles per hour. She sees a traffic jam about 400 feet ahead and she needs to come to a complete stop. Her reaction time is about 3/4 of a second. Calculate her reaction distance, braking distance, and stopping distance.

Answer 1

Maralena's reaction distance when driving at 80 mph with a reaction time of 0.750 seconds is approximately 88 feet. To determine the complete stopping distance, the braking distance is required, but it cannot be computed without the deceleration rate.

Step-by-step explanation:

Maralena is driving at 80 miles per hour, which can be converted to 117.333 feet per second (1 mile = 5280 feet; 80 miles = 5280 feet x 80 = 422400 feet; 422400 feet/3600 seconds = 117.333 feet per second). Her reaction time is 0.750 seconds, so to calculate the reaction distance, we multiply her speed in feet per second by her reaction time (117.333 x 0.750 = 87.99975 feet, approximately 88 feet).

To find the braking distance, we would need the deceleration rate, which is not provided in the question. However, if we assume typical deceleration rates, we could estimate it, but without actual data, the braking distance remains undetermined for this scenario.

The stopping distance is the sum of the reaction distance and the braking distance. Since we don’t have the braking distance, we can only provide the reaction distance part of the stopping distance here.