You are travelling forward in a car at 20 m/s. Your car tires have a radius of 33 cm. You slam on the brakes, which slows the tires at an angular acceleration of 40 rad/s^2.

How long until the tires are no longer spinning (although the car may still be sliding forward) in s?

1 answer

To solve this problem, we need to first determine the angular velocity of the tires when the car starts to brake. We can use the formula:

ω = ω0 + αt

Where:
ω = angular velocity (final)
ω0 = initial angular velocity (when the car starts to brake)
α = angular acceleration
t = time

Since the car tires are initially spinning at a constant speed, the initial angular velocity is simply the linear velocity divided by the tire radius:

ω0 = v / r

Plugging in the values:

ω0 = 20 m/s / 0.33 m = 60.606 rad/s

Next, we'll use the formula for angular velocity to calculate the time it takes for the tires to stop spinning:

0 = ω0 + αt

Rearranging the equation:

t = (-ω0) / α

Plugging in the values:

t = (-60.606 rad/s) / (40 rad/s^2)
t = -1.515 s

Since time cannot be negative, we'll take the positive value:

t = 1.515 s

Therefore, it takes approximately 1.515 seconds for the car tires to stop spinning.