Question

You are making a circular turn in your car when you hit a bigpatch of ice, causing the force of

friction between the tires and the road to become zero. While thecar is on the ice, it
A) continues to follow the same circular path as initially.
B) continues to follow a circular path, but with a radius largerthan the original radius.
C) moves along a path that is neither straight nor circular.
D) moves along a straight-line path.

Answer 1

D

Step-by-step explanation:

It moves in a straight line path.

The reasoning is that there is no longer a friction force pushing against the car in the opposite direction as the centripetal acceleration. Thus the net force is no longer zero, and the car shoots off in a straight line.

Picture a semicircle section of tubing, if you throw a marble in to one end, ignoring friction, it will come out the other end in a straight line tangent to the circle at the exit point.

Hope that helps to clarify.