Why train Cannot stop immediately?

Train cars have very limited traction on the rails. When the brakes are locked they will simply slide. The engine’s wheels are designed for starting, not stopping. Because there’s not much friction available in the wheel-rail interface.

Why do trains slow down?

Because the tracks don’t have a lot freedom to move, they’re tied down at high temperatures (95 – 100°F) to try and reduce the amount of expansion in the summer heat. When the rails are already heated by weather, the added energy from the train traveling over the tracks can be enough to cause them to become too hot.

Why do moving ships take longer than cars?

We know that ship has a larger mass than that of a car. Due to the large momentum (p=mv) of ship, when it is allowed to stop the time taken by it to reduce the momentum to zero is more than in case of a car. So moving ship takes longer time to stop.

Why can’t trains be stopped quickly?

Broadly due to these reasons, a train cannot be stopped quickly or within a limited distance or the sight distance of the driver. Though there is also some misperceptions about the braking capacity and accelerating capacity of trains. Trains can accelerate and brake much faster that what people think they can.

Why do trains stretch out when they run?

If the train has more than sufficient power, they can often do a “stretch start”, with the slack stretched out. Normally, when a train is running, the slack tends to be stretched, but can run in and out due to grades, curvature of the track, etc.

Why do big trucks require more stopping distance than small cars?

It’s true that, in present-day reality, big trucks do require more stopping distance than small cars, but the reason is economics, not physics. In principle, big trucks could be designed to stop in the same distance as small cars, if we wanted to pay for the engineering improvements. Here are this article’s “take-homes”:

What happens if you put more braking force on a train?

Trains brakes could easily be designed to apply far more braking force than they currently do. But if you do that you’d simply overload the wheel-rail interface and the train would slide. Sliding is bad, just like in a car it’ll take you longer to stop if you slide. It also damages the wheels and possible the track.