Question

A 1500 kg car has an applied forward force of 5000 N and experiences an air resistance of 1250 N. What is the car's acceleration?

Answer 1

Answer:

$2.33\ m/s^2$

Explanation:

Net Force

According to the second Newton's law, the net force exerted by an external agent on an object of mass m is:

Fn = m.a

Where a is the acceleration of the object.  The net force is the sum of the individual vector forces applied to the object.

The m=1500 Kg car has two horizontal forces applied: the forward force of 5000 N that causes the movement and the air resistance force of 1250 N that opposes motion.

The net force is Fn = 5000 N - 1500 N = 3500 N

To find the acceleration, we solve the equation for a:

$\displaystyle a=\frac{Fn}{m}$

$\displaystyle a=\frac{3500}{1500}$

$\boxed{a = 2.33\ m/s^2}$

The car's acceleration is $a = 2.33\ m/s^2$