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A car is traveling at when the driver sees an accident 80 m ahead and slams on the brakes. What minimum constant deceleration is required to stop the car in time to avoid a pileup? (Round your answer to two decimal places.)
Studdy Solution
STEP 1
What is this asking?
How hard does a driver need to brake to avoid hitting something 80 meters ahead while driving at 112 km/h?
Watch out!
The units are different!
We've got kilometers per hour and meters.
Mixing units is a recipe for disaster!
STEP 2
1. Convert Units
2. Set Up the Equation
3. Solve for Deceleration
STEP 3
Alright, let's get those units matching!
We need to convert the speed from km/h to m/s.
Why? Because the distance is given in meters.
Consistency is key!
STEP 4
We know that 1 km is equal to 1000 m, and 1 hour is equal to 3600 seconds.
So, to convert 112 km/h to m/s, we **multiply** by 1000 m/km and **divide** by 3600 s/h.
It's like magic!
STEP 5
STEP 6
Boom! Our **initial velocity**, , is approximately m/s.
Much better!
STEP 7
We're dealing with constant deceleration, which means constant acceleration in the opposite direction of motion.
We can use this handy-dandy equation of motion:
STEP 8
STEP 9
Where: is the **final velocity** (which is 0 m/s since we want to stop), is the **initial velocity** (that's our m/s), is the **acceleration** (which is what we're looking for, our deceleration will be ), and is the **distance** (80 m).
STEP 10
Let's plug in what we know!
STEP 11
STEP 12
Now, we **solve for** :
STEP 13
STEP 14
Since we're looking for deceleration, we take the positive value.
So, the minimum constant deceleration required is approximately m/s².
STEP 15
The minimum constant deceleration required to stop the car in time is approximately ** m/s²**.
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