Surviving Extreme Deceleration: David Purley's Remarkable Story | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for Physics with MasteringPhysics

Chapter 2 Problem 61P

Question

On July 13, 1977, while on a test drive at Britain's Silverstone racetrack, the throttle on David Purley's car stuck wide open. The resulting crash subjected Purley to the greatest "g-force" ever survived by a human—he decelerated from 173 km/h to zero in a distance of only about 0.66 m. Calculate the magnitude of the acceleration experienced by Purley (assuming it to be constant), and express your answer in units of the acceleration of gravity, \(g=9.81 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}^{2}\).

Solution

 

Step 1 of 3

The objective here is to determine the acceleration of the car and express that in terms of the acceleration of gravity, \(g=9.81 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}^{2}\).

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Surviving Extreme Deceleration: David Purley's Remarkable Story
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Discover the incredible tale of David Purley's survival in a high-speed car crash! In this video, we calculate the magnitude of the acceleration he experienced during the rapid deceleration from 173 km/h to zero. Learn how to express it in units of gravity and explore the limits of human endurance.


Title Physics with MasteringPhysics 4 
Author James S. Walker
ISBN 9780321541635

Surviving Extreme Deceleration: David Purley's Remarkable Story

Chapter 2 textbook questions

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