Question

Two cars are moving in the same direction along with two parallel straight lines, along a highway. At a particular instant, the velocity of car A exceeds the velocity of car B. Does this mean that the acceleration of car A is greater than that of B? Explain.

Answer 1

There is no information given about the initial velocities of the cars. So, there are two possible cases:

1. Car A is moving with uniform velocity and car B is decelerating:

1. In this case, the velocity of car A remains the same but the velocity of car B decreases until it becomes lesser than that of car A.
2. So, car A automatically gets a higher velocity relative to car B without any acceleration.
3. However, if we consider the acceleration of car A to be zero, then the acceleration of car B is negative as it is decelerating.
4. Comparing the magnitude, the acceleration of car A is higher than that of car B.

2. Car A is moving with acceleration greater than that of car B:

1. In this case, the velocity of car A increases due to acceleration until it is more than the velocity of car B.
2. It indicates that the acceleration of car A is greater than that of car B.

Hence, it is evident that the acceleration of car A is greater than that of car B to have a greater velocity than car B.