- #1
garcia1
- 27
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Homework Statement
An engineer in a locomotive sees a car stuck
on the track at a railroad crossing in front of
the train. When the engineer first sees the
car, the locomotive is 250 m from the crossing
and its speed is 12 m/s.
If the engineer’s reaction time is 0.36 s,
what should be the magnitude of the mini-
mum deceleration to avoid an accident?
Answer in units of m/s2.
Homework Equations
I used the kinematics equation x = Vot + 1/2at^2 to find my answer.
The Attempt at a Solution
By solving for a, I got the answer 3791.358 m/s^2. This was wrong, and I'm also confused as to whether it should be a positive or negative answer.