Question

A curve in a stretch of highway has radius 489 m. The road is unbanked. The coefficient of static friction between the tires and road is 0.600.What is the maximum safe speed that a car can travel around the curve without skidding?

Answer 1

Given,

The radius of the highway, r=489 m

The coefficient of the static friction, μ=0.600

The maximum safe speed for a vehicle when the road is not banked is given by,

`v=\sqrt[]{rg\mu}`

Where g is the acceleration due to gravity.

On substituting the known values,

`\begin{gathered} v=\sqrt[]{489*9.8*0.600} \\ =53.62\text{ m/s} \end{gathered}`

Thus the maximum safe speed for the car is 53.62 m/s