An electric toy car with a mass of 7 kg is powered by a motor with a voltage of 3 V and a current supply of 9 A. How long will it take for the toy car to accelerate from rest to 3 m/s?
1 Answer
Mar 20, 2016
The power input is the product of the voltage and the current.
P = IV
= (3 "V") * (9 "A")
= 27 "W"
The change in kinetic energy for the car is
Delta "KE" = 1/2 m (v^2 - v_0^2)
= 1/2 (7 "kg") ((3 "m/s")^2 - (0 "m/s")^2)
= 31.5 "J"
Thus, the time needed is the energy divided by the power.
t = frac{Delta "KE"}{P}
= frac{31.5 "J"}{27 "W"}
= 1.17 "s"