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A car is traveling at 104 km/h when the driver sees an accident 50 m ahead and slams on the brakes. What minimum constant deceleration is required to stop the car in time to avoid a pileup

User Ishtiaque Khan
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1 Answer

12 votes
12 votes

a = - 8.34 m/sec² ( deceleration or negative)

Equations for UAM ( uniformly accelerated motion) are:

vf = v₀ ± a*t and s = s₀ + v₀*t + (1/2)*a*t²

In our case, the motion is with deceleration, then

vf = v₀ - a*t and s = s₀ + v₀*t - (1/2)*a*t²

working on these equatios we get:

vf = v₀ - a*t (1) s - s₀ = v₀*t - (1/2)*a*t² (2)

v₀ - vf = a*t

t = (v₀ - vf)/a

By substitution of (1) in equation (2)

s - s₀ = v₀ * (v₀ - vf)/a - (1/2) * a* [(v₀ - vf)/a]²

s - s₀ = (v₀² - v₀*vf)/a - (1/2) * a* (1/a²)* (v₀ - vf)²

s - s₀ = 1/a * ( v₀² - v₀*vf ) - 1/a* (1/2) * (v₀ - vf)²

s - s₀ = 1/a* [ ( v₀² - v₀*vf ) - (1/2) * (v₀ - vf)²]

a * (s - s₀ ) = v₀² - v₀*vf - v₀²/2 - vf²/2 + v₀*vf

a * (s - s₀ ) = (1/2) * v₀² - (1/2)*vf²

a * (s - s₀ ) = (1/2) * ( v₀² - vf²)

We find an expression to calculate the minimum deceleration to stop the car in time to avoid crashing

s₀ = 50 meters s = 0 v₀ = 104 Km/h vf = 0

1 Km = 1000 m and 1 h = 3600 sec

v₀ = 104 Km/h = 28.88 m/sec

a = (1/2) [ (28.88)² - 0 ] / 0 - 50

a = - 8.34 m/sec² ( deceleration or negative)

User Ich
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