Question

Cars A and B are racing each other along the same straight road in the following manner: Car A has a head start and is a distance DA beyond the starting line at t=0. The starting line is at x=0. Car A travels at a constant speed vA. Car B starts at the starting line but has a better engine than Car A, and thus Car B travels at a constant speed vB, which is greater than vA?

Answer 1

The question is incomplete. Here is the complete question.

Cars A nad B are racing each other along the same straight road in the following manner: Car A has a head start and is a distance $D_{A}$ beyond the starting line at t = 0. The starting line is at x = 0. Car A travels at a constant speed $v_{A}$. Car B starts at the starting line but has a better engine than Car A and thus Car B travels at a constant speed $v_{B}$, which is greater than $v_{A}$.

Part A: How long after Car B started the race will Car B catch up with Car A? Express the time in terms of given quantities.

Part B: How far from Car B's starting line will the cars be when Car B passes Car A? Express your answer in terms of known quantities.

Answer: Part A: $t=\frac{D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$

              Part B: $x_{B}=\frac{v_{B}D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$

Explanation: First, let's write an equation of motion for each car.

Both cars travels with constant speed. So, they are an uniform rectilinear motion and its position equation is of the form:

$x=x_{0}+vt$

where

$x_{0}$ is initial position

v is velocity

t is time

Car A started the race at a distance. So at t = 0, initial position is $D_{A}$.

The equation will be:

$x_{A}=D_{A}+v_{A}t$

Car B started at the starting line. So, its equation is

$x_{B}=v_{B}t$

Part A: When they meet, both car are at "the same position":

$D_{A}+v_{A}t=v_{B}t$

$v_{B}t-v_{A}t=D_{A}$

$t(v_{B}-v_{A})=D_{A}$

$t=\frac{D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$

Car B meet with Car A after $t=\frac{D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$ units of time.

Part B: With the meeting time, we can determine the position they will be:

$x_{B}=v_{B}(\frac{D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}} )$

$x_{B}=\frac{v_{B}D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$

Since Car B started at the starting line, the distance Car B will be when it passes Car A is $x_{B}=\frac{v_{B}D_{A}}{v_{B}-v_{A}}$ units of distance.