Chapter 3.1, Problem 15SSC

To determine

Explanation of the problem and motion diagram.

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

The slope of the position-time diagram gives the velocity of the car driver and police officer. The positive slope describe acceleration, negative slope describe deceleration and constant describe either rest or uniform motion.

The police officer and car driver can be at the same position with different speeds. The police officer and car driver made the wrong assumption as it is not necessarily that both cars have same speed for being at the same position.

The motion diagram of the police officer and car driver is shown below.

Figure (1)

Conclusion:

Thus, the police officer and car driver starts from different positions but they met at the position 10 m from the starting point and the motion diagram of is shown in the figure (1).