An electric toy car with a mass of 5 kg5kg is powered by a motor with a voltage of 4 V4V and a current supply of 5 A5A. How fast can the toy car accelerate from rest to 3 m/s3ms?
1 Answer
Aug 24, 2017
Explanation:
Power can be expressed in terms of current and voltage as:
color(blue)(P=VI)P=VI
- The units of power are watts, where one watt is equivalent to one joule (of energy) per second. We can use this idea along with the concept of kinetic energy to determine the time required to accelerate the toy car to the given velocity.
color(blue)(K=1/2mv^2)K=12mv2
We have the following information:
|->m=5"kg"↦m=5kg |->V=4"V"↦V=4V |->I=5"A"↦I=5A |->v=3"m"//"s"↦v=3m/s
We can calculate power:
P=(4"V")(5"A)P=(4V)(5A)
color(blue)(P=20" Joules"//"second")P=20 Joules/second
Now kinetic energy:
K=1/2(5"kg")(3"m"//"s")^2K=12(5kg)(3m/s)2
color(blue)(K=7.5"J")K=7.5J
So, we have:
7.5cancel("Joules")xx(1"second")/(20cancel(" Joules"))
=>0.375" seconds"
=>color(blue)(~~0.38" s")