The Acela is the Porsche of American trains. Shown in Figure P2.59a, the electric train whose name is pronounced ah-SELL-ah is in service on the Washington-New York- Boston run. With two power cars and six coaches, it can carry 304 passengers at 170 mi/h. The carriages tilt as much as 6- from the vertical to prevent passengers from feeling pushed to the side as they go around curves. Its braking mechanism uses electric generators to recover its energy of motion. A velocity-time graph for the Acela is shown in Figure P2.59b.
(a) Describe the motion of the train in each successive time interval.
(b) Find the peak positive acceleration of the train in the motion graphed.
(c) Find the train’s displacement in miles between t = 0 and t = 200 s.
(a) The Acela—1 171 000 lb of cold steel thundering along at 150 mi/h.
(b) Velocity-versus-time graph for the Acela.