Really, Gundy ? ! ?
The formula for the car's speed is given and discussed in the box. The formula is
v = √(2·g·μ·d)
Then they <em>tell</em> you that μ is 0.750 , and then they <em>tell</em> you that d = 52.9 m . Also, everybody knows that 'g' is gravity = 9.8 m/s² .
They also tell us that the mass of the car is 1,000 kg, and they tell us that it took 3.8 seconds to skid to a stop. But we already <em>have</em> all the numbers in the formula <em>without</em> knowing the car's mass or how long it took to stop. The police don't need to weigh the car, and nobody was there to measure how long the car took to stop. All they need is the length of the skid mark, which they can measure, and they'll know how fast the guy was going when he hit the brakes !
Now, can you take the numbers and plug them into the formula ? ! ?
v = √(2·g·μ·d)
v = √( 2 · 9.8 m/s² · 0.75 · 52.9 m)
v = √( 777.63 m²/s²)
v = 27.886 m/s
Rounded to 3 digits, that's <em>27.9 m/s </em>.
That's about 62.4 mile/hour .
