Question

A bicycle weighs 780. pounds. If the pressure exerted by itstires on the ground is 30.5 pounds per square centimeter, whatis the area of one of the two tires that's in contact with theroad? (This will be half as much as the pressure exerted byboth tires.)cm²Your answer should be rounded to three significant figures. Do not include unitsin your answer.Enter the answer

Answer 1

The pressure is given by:

`P=(F)/(A)`

In this case the pressure is 30.5 pounds per square cm and the force is 780 pounds, plugging these values and solving for the area we have:

`\begin{gathered} 30.5=(780)/(A) \\ A=(780)/(30.5) \\ A=25.5738 \end{gathered}`

Hence the total area is 25.5738 square cm. This is the area of both tires, to get the area of just one tire we divide it by two:

`(25.5738)/(2)=12.787`

Therefore, the area of contact of one of the tires is 12.8 square cm.