Question #8f27f

1 Answer
Sep 14, 2016

The problem is as shown in the figure below. Momentarily both the bus and Sophia are still and are 60m apart. On looking at the bus Sophia starts running at 6ms1 towards the bus and bus drives away with a constant acceleration of 0.18ms2
my comp
1. Suppose Sophia catches the bus after time t sec
Kinematic equation for Sophia
Distance ran=6t
In this duration Bus moves
sbus=ut+12at2
sbus=0×t+12×0.18t2
sbus=0.09t2

To catch the bus, distance run by Sophia 6t=60+0.09t2
Rewriting we obtain
0.09t26t+60=0
Multiplying both sides with 1003 we get
3t2200t+2000=0
using the formula to find roots of a quadratic
t=200±400004×3×20002×3
t=200±160006
t=200±126.56

Selecting ve sign as that relates to time when Sophia catches the bus
t=12.25s, rounded to two decimal places.

Distance run by Sophia in this time=12.25×6=49.5m, rounded to one decimal place.
2. There is no change in the kinematic equation for the bus. But for Sophia we have
Distance ran=4t

To catch the bus, distance run by Sophia 4t=60+0.09t2
Rewriting we obtain
0.09t24t+60=0

Multiplying both sides with 100 we get
9t2400t+6000=0

Now this time
t=400±1600004×9×60002×9
t=400±560002×9

We see that discriminant is ve and square root of this number is imaginary. As such the real roots don't exist. Sophia will never be able to catch the bus.
3. Suppose Sophia needs to run at a velocity of v ms1 in order to catch the bus.
There is no change in the kinematic equation for the bus. But for Sophia we have
Distance ran=vt
To catch the bus, distance run by Sophia vt=60+0.09t2
Rewriting we obtain
0.09t2vt+60=0

Multiplying both sides with 100 we get
9t2100vt+6000=0
Using the formula for roots of a quadratic
t=100v±10000v24×9×60002×9
For real roots and with minimum velocity required for Sophia to run the discriminant must be set to be =0. We have
10000v24×9×6000=0
Solving for v
10000v2=216000
Ignoring the ve root
v4.65ms1, rounded to two decimal places.
t=4.65×10018
t=46518 (discriminant being zero, roots are =b2a)
t=25.8s, rounded to one decimal place.