A box falls off of a tailgate and slides along the street for a distance of 62.5 m. Friction slows the box at –5.0 m/s2. At what speed was the truck traveling when the box fell?

25 m/s

Explanation:

This question can be solved using equation of motion

where

v is the final velocity

u is the initial velocity

s is the distance covered while moving from initial to final velocity

a is the acceleration

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Given

box moved for distance of 62.5 m

Friction slows the box at –5.0 m/s2----> this statement means that there is deceleration , speed of truck decreases by 5 m/s in every second until the box comes to rest. Friction causes this deceleration.

thus in this problem

a = -5.0 m/s2

V = 0   as body came to rest due to friction deceleration

u the initial velocity we have to find

the initial velocity of box will be the same as speed of truck, as the box was in the truck and hence box will pick the speed of truck.

so if we find speed of box, we will be able get sped of truck as well.

using equation of motion

Thus, initial speed with the truck was travelling was 25 m/s.