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An unmarked police car travelling at a constant 80.0 km/h is passed by a speeder
travelling at 100.0 km/h. Precisely 1.0 s after the speeder passes, the police steps on the accelerator. If the police car’s acceleration is 2.0 m/s2, how much time passes before the police car overtakes the speeder (assumed moving at a constant speed)?

1 Answer
Mar 8, 2017

6.4s, rounded to one decimal place.

Explanation:

Let the Police car overtake the speeder after a period t passes once he crosses the police car.

  1. For first 1.0s both cars travel at their respective speeds. Distance between the two cars at the end of 1.0s
    d1=Relative speed of cars×1.0
    d1=[(100.080.0)×10003600]×1.0=20000.03600=509m
    This is the distance speeder is ahead of police car just before it accelerates.
  2. Distance moved by speeder after 1.0s before Police car overtakes it
    d2=100.0×10003600×(t1)=2509(t1)m
  3. Distance to be covered by Police car to overtake the speeder in (t1)s is
    d1+d2=509+2509(t1)m
  4. Setting up the kinematic expression
    s=ut+12at2
    and inserting given values in SI units we get
    509+2509(t1)=2009(t1)+12×2.0(t1)2
    (t1)2509(t1)509=0
    9(t1)250(t1)50=0
    To solve the quadratic we substitute t1=x
    It becomes
    9x250x50=0

I found roots of this quadratic using inbuilt graphic tool
my compmy comp

we get roots as x=0.9and6.4, rounded to one decimal place
Time can not be negative, therefore, ignoring the first root we get

t1=6.4
t=6.4s, rounded to one decimal place.