To demonstrate the tremendous acceleration of a top fuel drag racer, you attempt to run your car into the back of a dragster that is "burning out" at the red light before the start of a race. (Burning out means spinning the tires at high speed to heat the tread and make the rubber sticky.) You drive at a constant speed of v0 toward the stopped dragster, not slowing down in the face of the imminent collision. The dragster driver sees you coming but waits until the last instant to put down the hammer, accelerating from the starting line at constant acceleration, a. Let the time at which the dragster starts to accelerate be t = 0.

(A) What is tmax, the longest time after the dragster begins to accelerate that you can possibly run into the back of the dragster if you continue at your initial velocity?

Question

Karsyn Noble

Physics

16 July, 19:35

To demonstrate the tremendous acceleration of a top fuel drag racer, you attempt to run your car into the back of a dragster that is "burning out" at the red light before the start of a race. (Burning out means spinning the tires at high speed to heat the tread and make the rubber sticky.) You drive at a constant speed of v0 toward the stopped dragster, not slowing down in the face of the imminent collision. The dragster driver sees you coming but waits until the last instant to put down the hammer, accelerating from the starting line at constant acceleration, a. Let the time at which the dragster starts to accelerate be t = 0.

(A) What is tmax, the longest time after the dragster begins to accelerate that you can possibly run into the back of the dragster if you continue at your initial velocity?

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Answers (1)

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Monserrat Johnson · Answer 1

If the dragster attains the speed equal to that of the car which is moving with constant velocity of v₀, before the two close in contact with each othe, there will not be collision.

So the dragster starting from rest, must attain the velocity v₀ in the maximum time given that is tmax.

v = u + a t

v₀ = 0 + a tmax

tmax = v₀ / a

The value of tmax is v₀ / a.