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An 1575 kg car skids to a stop across a horizontal surface over a distance of 45m. the frictional force acting on the car is 7000. what is the initial velocity of the car?

A. 20ms⁻¹
B. 15ms⁻¹
C. 25ms⁻¹
D. 10ms⁻¹

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The initial velocity of the car can be found by equating the work done by friction to the initial kinetic energy of the car. By using the work-energy principle and the given values, the initial velocity is calculated to be 20 m/s. Option A is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the initial velocity of the car, we can use the work-energy principle, which relates the work done by the frictional force to the kinetic energy of the car. Since the car skids to a stop, its final kinetic energy is 0, so the work done by friction is equal to the initial kinetic energy of the car. The work done by friction (Work = force × distance) is therefore:

Work = (frictional force) × (distance) = (7000 N) × (45 m) = 315,000 J.

The initial kinetic energy (KE) of the car, which is also 315,000 J since the car stops, is given by:

KE = 0.5 × (mass) × (initial velocity)2

We can rearrange this to solve for the initial velocity (v0):

v0 = √(2 × KE / mass) = √(2 × 315,000 J / 1575 kg) ≈ √(400) m/s ≈ 20 m/s.

Thus, the initial velocity of the car is 20 m/s (Option A).

To find the initial velocity of the car, we can use the equation:

Final velocity2 = Initial velocity2 + 2 * acceleration * distance

Since the car comes to a stop, the final velocity is 0 m/s. The acceleration can be calculated using Newton's second law:

Force = mass * acceleration

Substituting the given values into the equations, we can solve for the initial velocity:

0 = Initial velocity2 + 2 * (Force / mass) * distance

Initial velocity = √(-2 * (Force / mass) * distance)

Plugging in the values for the force, mass, and distance, we get:

Initial velocity = √(-2 * (7000 / 1575) * 45) ≈ 20 m/s

Therefore, the initial velocity of the car is approximately 20 m/s (Option A).

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