Question

In the Back to the Future movies, a DeLorean car of mass 1230 kg travels at 88 miles per hour to venture back to the future.

(a) What is the kinetic energy of the DeLorean?
(b) What spring constant would be needed to stop this DeLorean in a distance of 0.1m?

Answer 1

The kinetic energy of the DeLorean can be calculated using the formula KE = 0.5 * mass * velocity^2. The spring constant needed to stop the DeLorean can be calculated using Hooke's Law, F = k * x.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the kinetic energy of the DeLorean, we need to use the formula: KE = 0.5 * mass * velocity^2. So in this case, the mass of the DeLorean is 1230 kg and the velocity is 88 miles per hour.

First, we need to convert 88 miles per hour to meters per second by multiplying it by 0.447. Then we can substitute these values into the formula to calculate the kinetic energy.

To calculate the spring constant needed to stop the DeLorean in a distance of 0.1m, we can use Hooke's Law: F = k * x, where F is the force, k is the spring constant, and x is the displacement.

The force required to stop the DeLorean can be calculated using the formula: F = m * a. Since the car is coming to rest, the acceleration will be negative. We can plug these values into the formulas to find the spring constant.