You have a job with an insurance company helping with the investigation of a car

Question

You have a job with an insurance company helping with the investigation of a car accident. At the scene you find a road running straight down a hill which is sloped =5° above the horizontal. At the bottom of the hill, the road goes horizontally for a very short distance to the edge of a cliff. The cliff has a height h= 420.0 ft vertical drop to the horizontal ground below. At a distance d= 25.0 ft from the base of the cliff is the wrecked car. A witness claims that the car parked somewhere on the hill, began coasting down the road on its own, taking about t1= 3.0 s before going over the edge of the cliff. The witness thinks that the driver was drunk and passed out, releasing the brake. Your boss drops a stone from the edge of the cliff and from the sound of its landing, determines that it takes t= 5.0 to hit the bottom. You are told to calculate the car's average acceleration coming down the hill using the statement of the witness and the other facts in the case. Your boss seems to suspect foul play.

Explanation / Answer

tim taken to go over edfe of cliff=3 Sec

horizontal range = 25 feet

let the initial horizontal velocity be v feet/sec when it drops from edge of cliff

time taken to reach bottom of the hill=5 feet

v*5=25

v=5 feet/sec

now time taken to go from 0 feet/sec to 5 feet/sec =3 sec

acceleration=5/3=1.6667 feet/sec^2

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.