Serway & Jewett — Oscillatory Motion: Problem 38

People who ride motorcycles and bicycles learn to look out for bumps in the road and especially for washboarding, a condition in which many equally spaced ridges are worn into the road. What is so bad about washboarding? A motorcycle has several springs and shock absorbers in its suspension, but you can model it as a single spring supporting a block. You can estimate the force constant by thinking about how far the spring compresses when a heavy rider sits on the seat. A motorcyclist traveling at highway speed must be particularly careful of washboard bumps that are a certain distance apart. What is the order of magnitude of their separation distance?