Speed 2: Cruise Control

Speed 2…Is it possible?

 To begin, many scenes in Speed 2 seemed staged and inaccurate. Some examples include:

• How the ship was only submerged in less than a meter under water
• How the magnitude of the people traveling on the ship was inaccurate according to a mathematical viewpoint, unless the floor's surface was extremely slippery
• How the ship took significantly longer to come to a complete stop in the movie...Since the ship was decelerating by -0.2 m/s, it should have come to a complete stop in 18 seconds.

As misleading as some of the scenes in the movie were, I believe that it is possible that the strong deceleration of the ship caused people to slide forward and two of the main characters to get thrown through the ship’s glass windows.

According to the free body diagram I created, the inertia force- the force that pulled the people on the ship forward, was greater than the friction force. Therefore, the inertia force was so strong that it caused the people on the ship to slide forward.  

     

 The inertia/ applied force acting on the people on the ship is greater than the friction force.

Since we know that the average weight of a man is 77 kg, we can find the net force (sum of all forces).

F_N = m x a

F_N = 77 x 9.8

F_N = 755 N

Using our found net force, we can then find coefficient of friction.

F_F = u x F_N

F_F = 755N

755= u x 4

188.75 = u     --> coefficient of Friction

From these calculations, we can conclude that the inertia force acting on the people was greater than the friction force. Therefore, it is possible that the deceleration of the ship was so strong that it caused people to slide forward and two of the main characters to get thrown through the ship’s glass windows.