Question

When a 74 kg driver climbs into the driver’s seat of a car, the springs of the car compress 6.5 mm. While driving over a rocky road, the 1500 kg car (along with the driver) bounces up and down creating a wavelength of ~8 m. Considering, how fast (in m/s) is the car traveling?

Answer 1

Given is :-

Wavelength = 8 m

Mass of the driver m = 74 kg

Compression  

Mass of the car and Driver M = 1500 kg

Now,

The spring constant will be

which gives us

Now,

the frequency of oscillation is given by

by plugging the values we get

which gives us

Now,

the velocity of a wave is given by

thus

which gives us