An automobile with a mass of 1500 kg is parked on a moving flatbed railcar; the

Question

An automobile with a mass of 1500 kg is parked on a moving flatbed railcar; the flatbed of the railcar is 1.5 m above the ground. The railcar has mass of 38,500 kg, the length of the railcar is 10 m, and the railcar is moving to the right at a constant speed of 9 m/s with respect to the ground. The automobile is initially at rest 5 m from the left end of the railcar, but starts to accelerate toward the left end with a constant acceleration of 50 m/s2. The automobile drives off of the left end of the railcar and lands on the tracks below. When the automobile lands, what is the distance between it and the left end of the railcar?

Explanation / Answer

Most of the information in this problem is irrelevant.

What you need to find out is how far the automobile and the car each travel in the time that the auto is in flight. If you add these two distances, then you will have the distance between the two objects.

Use these two kinematic equations:

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