Problem Statement:
Your friend's car can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds. A top-fuel dragster can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 0.82 seconds. If the top-fuel dragster is at the starting line and your friend's car is at the finish line (L = 0.25 mile = 1320 ft), how long would it take the dragster to catch your friend if they both started at the same time?
Solution:
Start by computing the acceleration of both vehicles:
[Note: we have converted mph (miles/hr) into ft/s to have consistent units.]
Using the same calculation we get adragster = 107.3 ft/s2. Then,
Since tcapture < 6.5 s, your friend won't even reach 60 mph before the dragster catches him!