Question

A 2,425 kg vehicle is accelerating to merge onto the highway. The driver pressing the gas pedal supplies 400 N of force, and all resistive forces (friction, wind resistance, etc) total 12 N. At what rate is the vehicle accelerating?

Answer 1

To find the rate of acceleration, we can use Newton's second law of motion, which states that the net force acting on an object is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. In this case, the net force is the force supplied by the driver minus the resistive forces. So, the net force is 400 N - 12 N = 388 N. We can now use this net force and the mass of the vehicle (2,425 kg) to calculate the acceleration using the formula F = ma. Therefore, the acceleration of the vehicle is 388 N / 2,425 kg = 0.16 m/s².