Question

A 1290kg car has just passed a diner. The closest the car came to the diner was r = 24.5m, but the car has driven another x = 22.7 m in the 2.05s elapsed since then. If the car travels at constant speed, what is the current magnitude l of the angular momentum of the car above the diner?

Answer 1

The angular momentum of the car can be calculated using the mass of the car, the constant velocity, and the perpendicular distance from the diner when using the equation L = mvr.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the current magnitude of the angular momentum L of the car above the diner, we can use the formula L = mvr, where m is the mass of the car, v is the velocity of the car, and r is the perpendicular distance from the diner to the path of the car. Since the car travels at constant speed, the distance r we are interested in is the initial closest distance plus the additional distance traveled, which is 24.5m + 22.7m. However, we need the perpendicular component of this displacement from the diner; since the car has moved past the closest point, the perpendicular distance remains 24.5m. To find v, we divide the additional distance traveled by the elapsed time: v = x / t = 22.7m / 2.05s. We then substitute the values into the angular momentum formula to calculate L.