What Angle Should an Incline Be for Zero Acceleration with Friction?

[quirty1]

Homework Statement

The question asks, At what angle would the straight need to be inclined at in order for the acceleration of the pod from B to C to be 0m/s^2?
and if the straight was inclined at 3 degrees calculate the final velocity
the coefficient of friction is 0.17 the mass is 6000kg the distance is 172m

Homework Equations

i think my teacher said to use M (coefficient of friction) = tan (theta)
but i have no idea how to do this :s any help will be greatly appreciated !

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm really not sure about any of this at the moment, but if you could point me in the right direction that would be great.

thanks.

edit:
sorry if I'm sounding impatient, but if anyone knows the slightest thing of this could you please lend a helping hand, that would be much appreciated.. this thing is driving me insane lol - if you have a formula i could use or anything :s, if you need more information i probably have it

 

[Hootenanny]

Homework Statement

The question asks, At what angle would the straight need to be inclined at in order for the acceleration of the pod from B to C to be 0m/s^2?
and if the straight was inclined at 3 degrees calculate the final velocity
the coefficient of friction is 0.17 the mass is 6000kg the distance is 172m

Homework Equations

i think my teacher said to use M (coefficient of friction) = tan (theta)
but i have no idea how to do this :s any help will be greatly appreciated !

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm really not sure about any of this at the moment, but if you could point me in the right direction that would be great.

thanks.

edit:
sorry if I'm sounding impatient, but if anyone knows the slightest thing of this could you please lend a helping hand, that would be much appreciated.. this thing is driving me insane lol - if you have a formula i could use or anything :s, if you need more information i probably have it

Welcome to Physics Forums.

Could you perhaps provide a diagram, the situation is somewhat unclear?

 

[quirty1]

Thanks for your reply!

there is a image, it's basically a mass traveling down a triangle, i need to find theta/the angle of incline for the mass acceleration to be 0m/s^2
edit: that thing it's traveling down is 172m long

 

[Hootenanny]

Thanks for providing the image.

If the block is not accelerating, what can you say about the sum of the forces acting on the block?

 

[quirty1]

well the only forces acting on the block i would imagine would be gravity+friction?

edit: oh i might have forgotten to mention, the block has already accelerated pretty fast by some magnets.. (4.7gs i calculated) then it's just moving by itself from there on. It's initial velocity is 50.9m/s which i calculated to be 183.24km/h

 

[Hootenanny]

well the only forces acting on the block i would imagine would be gravity+friction?

That is indeed correct. If the block is not accelerating, what can you say about the sum of these two forces?

 

[quirty1]

AH! i get it now... thanks mate, i think that the 2 forces have to be equal, then the tan(theta) of the incline must be my coefficient of friction !