Physlet Physics by Christian and Belloni: Problem 2.8

2.1: Position and Displacement
2.2: Average Velocity
2.3: Average and Instantaneous Velocity
2.4: Acceleration and Measurement
2.5: Motion on a Hill or Ramp
2.6: Free Fall

Problem 2.8: The purple truck is catching up to the yellow truck

Purple Truck

Yellow Truck

Please wait for the animation to completely load.

The purple truck is catching up to the yellow truck (position is given in meters and time is given in seconds). Restart.

If the trucks continue, at what clock reading, t, will the purple truck pass the yellow truck?
At what position, x, does the purple truck pass the yellow truck?
On one graph, plot x vs. t for each truck. Verify your answers for parts (a) and (b).

Problem authored by Aaron Titus with support by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-9952323 and placed in the public domain.

Physlets were developed at Davidson College and converted from Java to JavaScript using the SwingJS system developed at St. Olaf College.