Question

You just baked a cake for your friend's 21st birthday and you are late for the big celebration. You hop in your car which is parked at the top of a very long hill that makes a 30 degree incline with the horizon. The party is in a house at the bottom of the hill. The cake is sitting on the passenger's seat. The coefficient of static friction between the cake and the seat is 0.5. You carefully accelerate up to the speed limit of 20m/s. But as you approach the bottom of the hill, you have to slow down and stop at the house with the party.

A) What is the largest acceleration you can achieve while slowing down without the cake falling off the passenger seat?

B) What is the minimum distance from the base of the hill that you must begin if you don't want the cake to fall off the seat?

Answer 1