How long does it take an automobile traveling

72.5 km/h to become even with a car that is
traveling in another lane at 55.5 km/h if the
cars’ front bumpers are initially 146 m apart?

The faster automobile is basically playing a catch-up game, with a distance (gap) of 146 m. at a catch-up speed of 72.5-55.5=17 km/h.

Converting this speed to m/s:
17 km/h = 17*1000 m/3600 s = 4.72 m/s

How long will it take to catch up a distance of 146m at a speed of 4.72 m/s ?

Use time = distance/speed.

To find out how long it takes for the two cars to become even, we need to calculate the time it would take for the faster car to cover the 146 m distance between them.

First, we need to convert the speeds of the cars to meters per second (m/s) since the distance is in meters. We know that 1 km = 1000 m and 1 hour = 3600 seconds.

So, the speed of the first car (72.5 km/h) in m/s is:

72.5 km/h * (1000 m/km) * (1 h/3600 s) = 20.14 m/s.

The speed of the second car (55.5 km/h) in m/s is:

55.5 km/h * (1000 m/km) * (1 h/3600 s) = 15.42 m/s.

Now, we can calculate the time it would take for the first car to cover the 146 m distance:

time = distance / speed

time = 146 m / 20.14 m/s = 7.24 seconds.

Therefore, it would take approximately 7.24 seconds for the two cars to become even.