Question

A 1190 kg car pulls a 460 kg trailer. The car exerts a horizontal force of 4070 N against the ground in order to accelerate. What force does the car exert on the trailer? Assume an effective friction coefficient of 0.190 for the trailer.

Answer 1

so I used T = m[F/(m + M) + µg] which I thought would work. but it didnt :(

Answer 2

Since the accelerations \(a\) are the same, we can state the following. Here, \(F\) is the force exerted by the car.\[F=(M+m)a+\mu mg\]\[T=ma+\mu mg\]And, we'll solve to eliminate \(a\).\[T=m\left(\frac{F-\mu mg}{M+m}\right)+\mu mg\]Perhaps this will lead you to the error in your calculation?

Answer 3

This looks right, let me try out the numbers

Answer 4

That worked, thank you very much.