You are driving your car uphill along a straight road. Suddenly, you see a car run a red light and enter the intersection just ahead of you. You slam on your brakes and skid in a straight line to a stop, leaving skid marks 30 m long. A policeman observes the whole incident and gives a ticket to the other car for running a red light. He also gives you a ticket for exceeding the speed limit of 50 km/hr. When you get home, you read your physics book and estimate that the coefficient of kinetic friction between your tires and the road was 0.60, and the coefficient of static friction was 0.80. You estimate that the hill made an angle of about 10° with the horizontal. You look in your owner's manual and find that your car weighs 960 kg. Will you fight the traffic ticket in court?
The Answer
If you can't view the above webcast, you can download the movie HERE