The Effects of

Works Cited
"Drinking and Driving." Drinking and Driving.
N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
"How Long Do Brake Pads Last?"
HowStuffWorks. N.p., 13 July 2010. Web.
25 Oct. 2015.
"MADD - Drunk Driving Statistics." MADD Drunk Driving Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Oct. 2015.

Julia Kittleson
October 26, 2015
Pre-AP physics Pd. 3

Drinking and
Driving
Julia Kittleson

Date of publication

THE KINEMATICS BEHIND

DRINKING AND DRIVING

THE KINEMATICS
INVOLVED IN BRAKING

REACTION TIME NOT

.
IMPAIRED

Every two minutes a person is injured in a drunk

driving crash. When someone drives drunk their
reaction time increases, causing them not to be
as quick to hit their brakes when they need to.
Brakes convert the kinetic energy of a car into
heat energy. The stopping distance for a car is
determined by the friction between the tires and
the road. The friction force of the road must
reduce the cars kinetic energy to zero. Everyday
another 28 people die as a result of drunk
driving.

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS
To find a cars stopping time we subtract the
final velocity from the initial velocity and divide
that number by the acceleration of the car. If a
car were going 10mph they would be going
4.47m/s so to find the stopping time you would
plug in 0m/s for your final velocity, since the
car will be stopped, 4.47m/s for initial velocity
and 10m/s^2 for the acceleration. This equals
.447 seconds. After finding the stopping time
we must then find the reaction distance. The
reaction distance is the initial velocity
multiplied by time. The average reaction time
of a person is 1.5 seconds so you would
multiply 1.5s times 4.47m/s. This equals 6.71
meters. Lastly, we need to find the stopping
distance. The equation for stopping distance is
the initial velocity plus the final velocity divided
by two and then multiplied by the stopping
time. So you would add 4.47m/s plus 0 and
then divide that by 2 and then multiply it by
.447s to get 1m.

REACTION TIME IMPAIRED

GRAPH

The graph shows the initial velocity vs. the total

stopping distance of a drunk driver. The
stopping distance is a function of initial speed.
As the velocity increases, so does the stopping
distance.

CONCLUSION
When a person is under the influence of
alcohol their reaction time increases. This
means that the time it takes for their car to
stop also increases, which means so does
the distance they travel. Those few more
seconds and few more meters, could deeply
injure someone and even cost them their
life. Driving under the influence can not only
lead to thousands of dollars in fines but also
jail time. When a person makes the decision
to drink and drive they are putting not only
themselves at risk, but also everyone else
on the road.

The graphs show that the reaction time

increases when a person is drunk which
causes the reaction distance to increase
so a drunk driver will travel farther
between when they react to a situation
and when the car stops, something that
can be quite dangerous.