Final answer:
Hydraulic brakes use Pascal's principle to transmit pressure from the brake pedal to the wheel cylinders. We can calculate the force at the slave cylinders by knowing the force at the master cylinder and their respective diameters, although complete braking capability loss depends on the vehicle's brake system design.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Hydraulic Brake System and Calculating Force Output
Hydraulic brakes operate on Pascal's principle, where a force applied at one point is transmitted to another point using an incompressible fluid. The question involves the braking system of a vehicle and how the force applied to the brake pedal is enhanced by a lever and a hydraulic system to apply pressure to the wheel cylinders, thereby creating a force output (F2) at each wheel cylinder to slow down the vehicle.
When hydraulic system #2 is lost, braking capability is affected; however, the actual reduction in braking capability depends on the redundancies and design of the vehicle's braking system, which is not provided in the question. The accumulator pressure reading does indicate the capacity for energy storage to provide braking power in the absence of hydraulic pressure.
The force F2 created at each wheel cylinder can be calculated by the formula for hydraulic pressure transmission, which states that pressure (P) is equal to the force (F) divided by the area (A). Given a force of 500 N in the master cylinder and the respective diameters of the master and wheel cylinders, one could calculate the force exerted on each wheel cylinder using A = π(d/2)^2 to find the area, then find the force using F = P * A.
Without the specifics of the redundancy systems in place, we cannot quantify exactly how much the braking capability is reduced, but it is clear that the system is designed to compensate to a certain extent to maintain brake function.