Crash Acceleration: Calculate SUV's Rate of Change in Velocity

[simplekin93]

Homework Statement

A person drives his SUV into a concrete wall. The car was initially moving East at 12.5m/s and the hood crumples a distance of 1.2m during the crash. What is the acceleration of the car during the crash? (don't forget directions when dealing with acceleration)

I don't even know where to begin.

 

[Rake-MC]

What constant acceleration formulae do you know?

 

[simplekin93]

almost all of them, i was given a big formula sheet that we are allowed to use in the test.

 

[Rake-MC]

So this is what we have:

initial velocity (12.5ms^-1)
final velocity (0.0ms^-1)
distance (1.2m)

What we need:

acceleration

What formula do you know that uses only these variables?

 

[simplekin93]

Vf^2 = Vi^2 +2ad

 

[Rake-MC]

Perfect! Now we just need to re-arrange that formula and solve for a!