A police car at rest, passed by a speeder traveling at a constant 110km/h takes off in hot

pursuit. The officer catches up to the speeder in 700m, maintaining a constant acceleration.
a). Plot the position versus time graph for both cars up to the catching-up point. b). Calc
how long it took for the officer to overtake the speeder. c). calc required police car accel. d).
calc speed of police at overtaking point.

In the absence of a scanner, I shall be forced to resort to crude Paint-based diagrams. Oh, the
horror. In any case, if we’re drawing a position vs. time graph, we need to understand the way
each party (the police and the speeder) behaves. Because the speeder is travelling at constant
velocity, his position will change linearly with time. You can confirm this by integrating a
constant velocity function or by driving a car at 110 km/h and plotting your position. If you opt
for the latter approach, it is recommended that you do so in a place without police cars.

As for the police officer, his position will vary quadratically with time; that is, his position vs.
time graph will take on a parabolic shape. This can be compared loosely to the parabolic motion
exhibited by projectiles in a uniform gravitational field; alternatively, you could integrate a
constant acceleration function twice. Take note that we shall take the origin of the graph to be the
point in time at which the speeder passes the police car, and we shall take a position of 0 to
indicate the position at which the speeder passes the police car (then at rest), and we shall assume
that the police car instantaneously begins to accelerate when the speeder passes it.

So there you have the diagram in question. For part b, we want to find the point at which the
officer overtook (passed) the speeder. In order to do this, we simply find how long it took for the
speeder to travel 700 m, using the equation x = x0 + v0t + 12 at 2 , and substituting in the relevant
values, such that we have 700m = 0 + (110 km hr )(1000 km )( 3600 s )t + 2 (0)t . Simplifying and solving
m 1 hr 1 2

gives the result that t = 22.9091 s . So there’s part b for you.

Now, for part c, we want to find what acceleration the police car must undergo in order to travel
700 meters in 22.91 seconds. We shall apply the gang-of-five equation x = x0 + v0t + 12 at 2 , and
substitute known values for x , v0 , and t ; this gives us 700 m = 0 + (0)(22.91 s) + 12 a(22.91 s) 2 .
We solve, and find that a = 2.6675 sm2 .

For part d, in order to find the velocity of the police car as it passes the speeder, we shall employ
the equation v = v0 + at , and substitute known values so that we have v = 0 + (2.67 sm2 )(22.91 s) .
Perform arithmetic, and find that v = 61.1111 ms . Fin.