Car Collision Problem: Determining Location and Speed at Collision

  • Thread starter Thread starter Math_Monster
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Car Collision
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 2K views
Math_Monster
Messages
1
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


A red car with speed 30.0m/s and a blue car with speed 25.0m/s are initially 200m apart and heading toward each other on a one-liner road. The brakes on the red car can produce an acceleration of 3.40m/ss while the breaks on the blue car can produce an acceleration of 3.25m/ss.
A) Do the cars collide? If yes, where?
B) If they collide find speed of each car upon collision.

Homework Equations


I found out both cars' locations if the final velocity is 0, I also found where the time it takes each car to have a velocity of 0. The red car reaches v=0 at 132m and the blue car reaches v=0 at 103.8 m. So clearly they crash because 103.8 < 132. How do I find out WHERE they crash?

The Attempt at a Solution


^
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Write down the distance each car goes as a function of time, X_r and X_b. You also know X_r + X_b = 200 (with a particular choice of coordinates for each car) at t = t_collision.