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A thief is running away on a straight road in a jeep moving with a speed of 9m/s. A police man chases him on a motor cycle moving at a speed of 10 m/s. If the instantaneous separation of the jeep from the motorcycle is 100m, how long will it take for the police man to catch the thief?

A. 1 s
B. 19 s
C. 90 s
D. 100 s

User Litaoshen
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1 Answer

3 votes

Final answer:

To find the time it takes for the police man to catch the thief, we can use the concept of relative velocity. The correct answer is Option D. 100 s.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the time it takes for the police man to catch the thief, we can use the concept of relative velocity.

The relative velocity is the difference between the speed of the thief and the speed of the police man.

In this case, the relative velocity is 9 m/s - 10 m/s = -1 m/s (since the thief is moving in the opposite direction).

The instantaneous separation between the jeep and the motorcycle is given as 100m.

So, to calculate the time it takes for the police man to catch the thief, we can use the formula

Time = Distance / Relative Velocity.

Plugging in the values, we get Time = 100m / (-1 m/s) = -100s.

Since time cannot be negative, we can ignore the negative sign and take the absolute value, giving us a time of 100 seconds.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option D. 100 s.

User Jsalonen
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