Calculating Acceleration and Time for a Freight Train to Reach 83.4 km/hr

[Lilly]

Force and Motion...

hi
could someone please tell me where i am going wrong with this question:
A freight train has a mass of 1.20E+7 kg. If the locomotive can exert a constant pull of 6.10E+5 N, how long does it take to increase the speed of the train from rest to 83.4 km/hr?
i tried to find accelertion by using F=ma, and i keep getting 0.05833...then i put it into the equation v=vo+at, but my answers never turn out right. i think maybe unit conversion is where I'm going wrong...but I'm not sure.
help would be appreciated...
thanks, lilly

 

[Doc Al]

i tried to find accelertion by using F=ma, and i keep getting 0.05833...

Right method. I assume that's a typo, since I get 0.050833 m/s^2.

then i put it into the equation v=vo+at, but my answers never turn out right. i think maybe unit conversion is where I'm going wrong...but I'm not sure.

Sounds good to me. If you aren't sure of your conversion, show how you did it.

 

[Gopi Prashanth]

I think this would help

My Acceleration is 0.0508333
83.4 KM/Hr = 83.4 * 5/18 m/sec = 23.16 m/sec which is the final velocity.
So according to the formula you used, u = uo + at my value for t turns out to be 23.16/0.0508333 = 455.6 seconds.