Yesterday a cop pulled me over for speeding. He claimed I was going 41 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. I have drove this road for years and always felt the speed limit should be 35 MPH. I was just drifting down a hill with my foot off the gas. I saw the cop at the bottom of the hill and he went after me. Can I still be speeding without even having my foot on the gas?
Of Course, he had every right to stop you. Physics tells us why. Newtons First Law of motions Says "An Object stays in its state of motion unless acted upon by a greater external force." Meaning, unless you apply braking energy to your car it will keep traveling until gravity makes it lose momentum enough to slow. Which is not enough of a force to slow the car on a hill, because gravity is actually helping speed the car the car down the hill. So you can accelerate down the hill without ever putting your foot on the gas and end up going faster at the bottom of the hill than you started.
August 7th, 2012 at 4:06 am
Yes, whatever speed he clocked you at, you got a ticket. Actually, he could have given you a reckless driving for the drifting, so be glad he didn’t!
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August 7th, 2012 at 4:27 am
Of Course, he had every right to stop you. Physics tells us why. Newtons First Law of motions Says "An Object stays in its state of motion unless acted upon by a greater external force." Meaning, unless you apply braking energy to your car it will keep traveling until gravity makes it lose momentum enough to slow. Which is not enough of a force to slow the car on a hill, because gravity is actually helping speed the car the car down the hill. So you can accelerate down the hill without ever putting your foot on the gas and end up going faster at the bottom of the hill than you started.
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August 7th, 2012 at 5:16 am
Sure, my first ever speeding ticket was for 43 in a 35.
No feet on any pedals. Just rolling along……downhill.
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