Your car is traveling behind a jeep. Both are moving at the same speed, so the velocity of the jeep relative to you is zero. A spare tire is strapped to the back of the jeep. Suddenly the strap breaks, and the tire falls off the jeep. Will your car hit the spare tire before the tire hits the road? Briefly explain.

Question

Physics

Darrell Barrett

18 October, 04:30

Your car is traveling behind a jeep. Both are moving at the same speed, so the velocity of the jeep relative to you is zero. A spare tire is strapped to the back of the jeep. Suddenly the strap breaks, and the tire falls off the jeep. Will your car hit the spare tire before the tire hits the road? Briefly explain.

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Answers (1)

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Trent Chung · Answer 1

No.

Explanation:

The spare tire is also moving at the speed of the jeep. When it separates from the jeep, both will be moving at the same horizontal speed, only that the spare tire will also fall at the same time. This if we neglect air friction, that could be a problem since it could cancel the horizontal velocity of the spare tire, although the jeep is blocking most of the air for the spare tire to feel any significant effect in such a short time.