You are late for your train. You are running at a speed of 7 m/s to catch the train. When you are a distance of 100 meters from the station the train starts to pull away from the station with an acceleration of .2 m/s squared. Will you catch the train? Need explanation of steps to figure out how to do this problem. Thanks!

Question

You are late for your train.  You are running at a speed of 7 m/s to catch the train.  When you are a distance of 100 meters from the station the train starts to pull away from the station with an acceleration of .2 m/s squared.  Will you catch the train?  Need explanation of steps to figure out how to do this problem. Thanks!

bobpursley · Answer

The closing distance has to be zero. The distance you have to run is 100 m more than the train goes in the time to catch it. dyou= 100 + 7t dtrain= 1/2 .2 t^2 set them equal, solve for t.