Question

Johnny places his remote control car on a conveyer belt so the car and the beltove in opposite directions. He knows his car can go 1.5 m/s. If the car's relative velocity is -0.5 m/s (backwards), what is the speed of the conveyer belt?

Answer 1

Answer:

The speed of the conveyor belt is 2.0 m/s in the backward direction.

Explanation:

Let the speed of car be 'c' and belt be 'b'.

Given:

Speed of car (c) = 1.5 m/s

Relative speed of car (r) = -0.5 m/s (backwards)

Both car and conveyor belt are moving in opposite direction.

So, when two objects move in opposite direction, the relative speed is the addition of the speeds of two objects.

Therefore, the relative speed of car is given as:

$r=c+b$

Plug in the given values and solve for 'b'. This gives,

$-0.5=1.5+b\\\\b=-0.5-1.5\\\\b=-2.0\ m/s$

Therefore, the speed of the conveyor belt is 2.0 m/s in the backward direction.