1. Transportation: Ch. 1, Act. 3
Stopping Your Car
Transportation: Ch. 1, Act. 3

2. What you already know
Response time: The time between seeing an event and being able to react to it.
Speed: The change in distance over time.
v = d/t

3. Effect of Speed on Reaction time
Think about being in a large box with no windows set in a truck with super-smooth suspension riding on a perfect straight highway
Can you tell how fast you are going?
Would you expect your reaction time to change as your speed increased?

4. Effect of Speed on Reaction time
As speed increases, does it take longer to react?
No.
What is the relationship between speed and stopping distance? Is it linear?
Yes.

5. What do you think?
Will you be able to stop in time to avoid hitting the moose?
What are the factors that determine how soon you will be able to stop the car?

6. Stopping your car What factors affect your car’s stopping ability?
Speed
Road conditions (dry, wet, oil slicked, dirt, gravel, paved, etc.)
Brake condition
Tire condition / Type of tires
Vehicle weight

7. Effect of Speed on Stopping Distance
As speed increases, does it take longer to stop?
Yes.
What is the relationship between speed and stopping distance? Is it linear? No

8. Effect of Speed on Stopping Distance
As speed increases, stopping distance increases exponentially as seen in the graph below.

9. Effect of Speed on Stopping Distance
As speed increases, stopping distance increases exponentially as seen in the graph below.

10. Braking distance game http://www.mrmont.com/games/brakingdistance.html
Glowing disk brakes (car stopping)
Garage disk brake failure (preferred)
Russian disk brake failure

11. The Mathematical Relationship
vf2 – vi2 = 2ad
Where:
vf and vi are the final and initial velocities, respectively.
a = acceleration.
d = distance traveled during stopping.
The final speed for a vehicle slowing down can be set to zero.
The acceleration can be considered to be uniform and constant while the vehicle slows down.
The acceleration is negative since the vehicle is slowing down.

12. The Mathematical Relationship
In its simplest form, the stopping distance is related to initial velocity and acceleration as follows:
d = v2/2a
What are its implications?
If the speed doubles, the stopping distance quadruples.
If the speed is cut in half, the stopping distance is reduced by one-fourth.
What happens if the speed is tripled?

13. Example 1: What does it mean?
A car is able to stop in 20 meters when traveling at 30 mph. How much distance will be required before it stops if the vehicle is traveling at:
15 mph? (1/2 of 30 mph)
60 mph? (twice 30 mph)
45 mph? (3x 15 mph)
75 mph? (5x 15 mph)
5 m = ¼
80 m = 4x
45 m = 9x dstop at 15 mph
125 m = 25x dstop at 15 mph

14. A Shortcut
If you know the base stopping distance to which relates to a given speed/velocity, the stopping distance for any other speed can be determined as follows:
d = do x n2
Where:
do = original stopping distance
n = factor by which the speed at the point where the vehicle stops changes from the speed used to compute the original stopping distance, do.

15. A Shortcut Example: Using a from example 1: Using b from example 1:
do = 20 meters
n = ½ (vo = 30 mph, v = 15 mph)
d = (20 m)(½2) = (20 m)(¼) = 5 meters
Using b from example 1:
n = 2 (vo = 30 mph, v = 60 mph)
d = (20 m)(22) = (20 m)(4) = 80 meters

16. Example 2: Which Car is Safer?
Considering the following graph, which car would be safer? Why?
Initial Velocity
Stopping Distance
Car B
Car A
Car A because its relative stopping distance is better overall for any speed.

17. Key Ideas
The most important factor in determining whether or not you will stop in time to avoid an accident is speed.
The distance required to stop is proportional to the square of the speed (d = v2/2a)
Response time will increase the distance required to stop.