Question

An engineer is designing the runway of an airport. Of the planes that will use the airport, the lowest acceleration rate is 3 m/s^2 and the lowest take off speed is 85 m/s. Assuming these minimum parameters are for the same plane, what is the minimum allowed length of the runway

Answer 1

Given,

The lowest acceleration, a=3 m/s²

The lowest takeoff speed, v=85 m/s

The initial velocity of the plane is u=0 m/s, as the plane starts accelerating from the rest.

The minimum allowed length of the runway must be equal to the distance traveled by plane with minimum parameters before taking off. That is the distance traveled by the plane when it accelerates from 0 m/s to 85 m/s.

From the equation of the motion,

`v^2-u^2=2as`

Where s is the minimum allowed length of the runway.

On substituting the known values in the above equation,