Question

8. Two cars, P and Q, travel in the same direction on a long, straight section of a highway. Car P passes car Q, and is adjacent to car Q at time to a. Suppose that car P and car Q each move with constant speed. At time t, is the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car P greater than, less than, or equal to the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car Q? Explain. Suppose instead that car P is moving with constant speed but car Q is speeding up. At time to, is the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car P greater than, less than, or equal to the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car Q? Explain. b.

Answer 1

a) When both are moving with constant speed , their instantaneous velocity at T will be equal. Because no one is accelerating. Both are are covering same distance in same time.

b) When car P is moving with constant speed but car Q is speeding up, at that time the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car P less than the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity of car Q, because it is accelerating and covering more distance as compared to car P.