Conservation of Momentum: 60mph-0mph-Xmph Turn around.?

What you have failed to include is the effective power output at the rear wheel.

As you have quoted speeds in miles per hour this makes the problem more difficult again.

And finally because we cannot know anything about the air resistance of both vehicles the problem is not perfectly soluble.

Even if we did know the drag coefficient of each, as the drag increases in proportion to the square of the speed of the vehicle the problem would be a differential equation only soluble through numeric modelling. (phew)

So we either a) do the experiment for real, or b) simplify the problem to get an approximate answer.

or c) give up, retire from the force and spend the time on a sunny beach with pretty girls bringing us cool drinks upon request.

So from 30 m/s to zero assuming a 1 g acceleration ( 10 m/s*2) takes 3 s.

This is for good tyres on good dry bitumen and could not be called a safe rate of deceleration.

For things other than stopping at red lights our system uses 3 m/s^2 as the maximum safe rate. But for stopping at red lights we inexplicably use 6 m/s^2 as a reasonable rate even though it cannot be met on a wet road.

Using 3 m/s^2 it takes 10 s to stop SAFELY.

By which time YOU have travelled 150 m and the truck has also moved some 375 m in the opposite direction ( 37.5 m/s * 10 s )

So at this time he is 525 m ahead of you.

So far this is easy.

Now it gets hard. You accelerate at a non linear rate. And an unknown rate too.

Let us imagine that you accelerate at the same 3 m/s^2 constantly. With NO limit to your top speed.

After 20 s you will have a speed of 60 m/s ( about 120 mph)

during this time you will have travelled 600 m and the truck will have travelled 750 m

You are now 675 m behind him

But for every second from now you are catching up at the rate of 60 - 37.5 = 22.5 m/s

You will catch him in 675/22.5 = 30 s

The truck has moved 37.5 * 30 m in this time = 1125 m

So the truck has moved a total of 375 + 750 + 1125

= 2.25 km

Which is actually a lot less than the 3 miles you specified.

The figures are realistic for a high powered car without asking for anything ridiculous except for the high top speed.

Our police are generally restricted to a lower maximum speed unless they have special high speed pursuit training and specific authorization in a specific case.

They would be able to accelerate at a similar rate but would have to hold their speed at 50 m/s max

So it would take about 650/(50-37.5) = 52 s to catch him and the distances would be correspondingly greater.

( just over 3 km in fact )

Rather than sending a note to my mother just tear up that last speeding ticket and we'll call it quits OK?

The anonymity of this communicate board we could the undesirable out of a few. all of us I even have ever undemanding has no longer been appropriate nor will ever be. The older i'm getting, the extra laid back i'm getting approximately life and seeing issues in a broader way. situations too short for somebody to tear on a stranger for something. Ain't gonna get you a front row seat in heaven. ( no longer that I have been on condition that coming in any case) Meanness hits all individuals at one time or yet another. Controlling it or eliminating it quite is what we ought to consistently be taking photos for.