Randall D. Knight — Kinematics in One Dimension: Problem Problem_50

The Smooth Company has proposed transporting people between Paris and Amsterdam, a distance of 430 km, through an underground tube from which the air has been removed to eliminate air drag. Small pods carrying four passengers would accelerate at \(2.5 \text{ m/s}^2\) until reaching a speed of \(180 \text{ m/s}\). Later, they would brake at \(1.5 \text{ m/s}^2\). A launch of one pod per minute would transport 240 passengers per hour, roughly equivalent to one jet plane per hour. a. What would be the trip time in minutes from Paris to Amsterdam? b. How far apart would two adjacent pods be on the constant-speed segment of the journey?