A man seeking to set a world record wants to tow a 122000-kg airplane along a runway by pulling horizontally on a cable attached to the airplane. The mass of the man is 95 kg, and the coefficient of static friction between his shoes and the runway is 0.74. What is the greatest acceleration the man can give the airplane? Assume that the airplane is on wheels that turn without any frictional resistance.

2 answers

the greatest force he can exert is HISWEIGHT*COEFFFRICTION or mu*mg

then the acceleration of the plane is

mu*g*manmass/planemass
oops...greatest acceleration is

mu*g*manmass/(manmass+planemass)