an automobile engineer found that the impact of a truck colliding at 16 km/h with a concrete pillar caused the bumper to indent only 6.4 cm. The truck stopped. Determine the acceleration.
To find the acceleration we are given two facts to begin. The impact at 16 km/h and the dent of 6.4 cm, or 0.064 meters. In solving the problem uniform acceleration is assumed, which would mean the avg speed during the impact was 8 km/hr by taking 16/2. We know distance = rate*time (d=r*t) . So t = d / r, so 0.64/8 = 0.008hr for t. Now we can solve for acceleration by taking a = 16 / 0.008 = 2000 km/hr.
