In the daytona 500 auto race, a ford thunderbird and a mercedes benz are moving side by side down a straightaway at 71.0 m/s. the driver of the thunderbird realizes that she must make a pit stop, and she smoothly slows to a stop over a distance of 250 m. she spends 5.00 s in the pit and then accelerates out, reaching her previous speed of 71.0 m/s after a distance of 370 m. at this point how far has the thunderbird fallen behind the mercedes benz, which has continued at a constant speed?

Thunderbird is 995.157 meters behind the Mercedes

Explanation:

It is given that all the cars were moving at a speed of 71 m/s when the driver of Thunderbird  decided to take a pit stop and slows down for 250 m. She spent 5 seconds  in the pit stop.

Here final velocity

initial velocity  distance  

Distance covered in the slowing down phase =

The car is in the pit stop for 5s

After restart it accelerates for 350 m to reach the earlier velocity 71 m/s

total time=

Distance covered by the Mercedes Benz during this time is given by

Distance covered by the Thunderbird during this time=

Difference between distance covered by the Mercedes  and Thunderbird

=

Thus the Mercedes is 995.157 m ahead of the Thunderbird.