Question

A police car is traveling north on a straight road at a constant 16.0 m/s. An SUV traveling north at 30.0 m/s passes the police car. The driver of the SUV suspects he may be exceeding the speed limit, so just as he passes the police car he lets the SUV slow down at a constant 1.80 m/s2. How much time elapses from when the SUV passes the police car to when the police car passes the SUV?

Answer 1

Answer:

It will take 15.55s for the police car to pass the SUV

Explanation:

We first have to establish that both the police car and the SUV will travel the same distance in the same amount of time. The police car is moving at constant velocity and the SUV is experiencing a deceleration. Thus we will use two distance fromulas (for constant and accelerated motions) with the same variable for t and x:

1. $x=x_{0}+vt$

2. $x=x_{0}+v_{0}t+\frac{at^{2}}{2}$

Since both cars will travel the same distance x, we can equal both formulas and solve for t:

$vt = v_{0}t+\frac{at^2}{2}\\\\ 16\frac{m}{s}t =30\frac{m}{s}t-\frac{1.8\frac{m}{s^{2}} t^{2}}{2}$

We simplify the fraction present and rearrange for our formula so that it equals 0:

$0.9\frac{m}{s^{2}} t^{2}-14\frac{m}{s}t=0 \\\\ t(0.9\frac{m}{s^{2}}t-14\frac{m}{s})=0$

In the very last step we factored a common factor t. There is two possible solutions to the equation at $t=0$ and:

$0.9\frac{m}{s^{2}}t-14\frac{m}{s}=0 \\\\ 0.9\frac{m}{s^{2}}t =14\frac{m}{s} \\\\ t =\frac{14\frac{m}{s}}{0.9\frac{m}{s^{2}}}=15.56s$

What this means is that during the displacement of the police car and SUV, there will be two moments in time where they will be next to each other; at $t=0 s$ (when the SUV passed the police car) and $t=15.56s$(when the police car catches up to the SUV)