Question

. A cart moving at 10 m/s is brought to a stop by the force plotted in the force-time graph shown here. Find the impulse and the approximate mass of the cart. Show all your work.

Answer 1

Given,

The initial velocity of the cart, u=10 m/s

The final velocity of th cart, v=0 m/s

The impulse is calculated as the area under the curve of the plot of force versus time.

Let us assume that the plot is a rectangle.

From the graph,

The length of the recatangle, t=4.5-0.5=0.5 s

The breadth of the rectangle is approximately, b