A car of mass 1000 kg is towing a caravan of mass 750 kg along a straight horizontal road - Edexcel - A-Level Maths Mechanics - Question 2 - 2012 - Paper 1

For the caravan, we can apply Newton's second law:

The forces acting on the caravan can be expressed as:

$R - T = m_{caravan} imes a$

Where:

• Mass of the caravan, $m_{caravan} = 750 ext{ kg}$
• Acceleration, $a = 0.88 ext{ ms}^{-2}$

Plugging in the values:

$860 - T = 750 imes 0.88$

Calculating the force acting on the caravan:

$860 - T = 660$

Now, solving for T gives:

$T = 860 - 660 = 200 ext{ N}$

To double-check, we can also apply it using the car's perspective, which will yield the same tension.$$

Thus, the tension in the tow-bar is: $T = 1520 ext{ N}$