Question

A train slows down as it rounds a sharp horizontal turn, going from 99.0 km/h to 41.0 km/h in the 13.5 s it takes to round the bend. The radius of the curve is 175 m. Compute the acceleration at the moment the train speed reaches 41.0 km/h. Assume the train continues to slow down at this time at the same rate.

Answer 1

change speeds to m/s

then compute the tangential acceleration, changevelocyt/time

now compute the centripetal acceleration
v^2/r

Because these are at right angles, then
accelearation= sqrt(tangential^2+centripetal^2)