An train car of total mass of 13000 kg is pulling into a station and slowing down with an acceleration of -4.56 m/s^2. Before th
e train pulls into the station, a group of 7 stowaway jump off the train. Each stowaway has a mass of 66 kg. If the braking force on the train remains the same, what will be the acceleration of the train once the stowaways jump out of the train?
Each jumper represents about 1/2 of 1% of the mass of the train, so together they total about 3.5% of the mass of the train. If the mass decreases by 3.5% and the braking force remains the same, the acceleration (magnitude) will increase by about 3.5%.
The acceleration will be about 0.17 m/s² more (in magnitude) than it was, or about -4.73 m/s².
In more simple terms, a horizontal line on any chart is where the y-axis values are equal. If it has been drawn to show a series of highs in the data, a data point moving above the horizontal line would indicate a rise in the y-axis value over recent values in the data sample.
