Final answer:
To facilitate a car merging onto the freeway from an on-ramp, you should increase your speed or change lanes, if safe, to avoid collision and allow the car to merge smoothly. Calculating the time it takes for a car to merge using the equations of motion can aid in understanding how traffic merges on freeways.
Step-by-step explanation:
When you are in the right lane of a freeway and you approach an entrance ramp with a car about to enter, the best action to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic is to adjust your speed or change lanes if it's safe. If you increase your speed slightly or change lanes to the left, you can make it easier for the car on the entrance ramp to merge. However, if changing lanes is not possible due to traffic, you should be prepared to adjust your speed to allow the car to merge safely onto the freeway.
Suppose a car merges onto the freeway from a 200-meter long ramp, starting at 10.0 m/s and accelerating at 2.00 m/s². To calculate how long it takes to travel the 200 meters up the ramp, we can use the equation of motion:
s = ut + ½at²
Where:
- s = the distance covered (200 meters)
- u = initial velocity (10.0 m/s)
- a = acceleration (2.00 m/s²)
- t = time (the unknown we are solving for)
By rearranging the equation and solving for t, we would find the time it takes for the car to merge into traffic.