Question

A car is traveling at 60 mph and is tailgating another car at distance of only 30 ft. If the reaction time of the tailgater is 0.5 seconds ( time between seeing the brake lights of the car ahead flash and hitting the brake ), how far will his car travel during his reaction time ?

Answer 1

44 ft

Explanation:

We are given that;

Speed; v = 60 mph

Reaction time;t = 0.5 s

Now, we know that;

Distance = speed x time

Since time is in seconds, let's convert speed to mph to ft/s

From conversion,

1 mph = 1.46667 ft/s

So, 60 mph would give;

60 × 1.46667 ≈ 88 ft/s

Thus, distance his car travels during his reaction time is;

Distance = 88 × 0.5 = 44 ft