GCSE Physics

Braking and Thinking Distances

Plotting graphs of thinking and braking distances clearly shows that braking is by far the most important factor:

braking and thinking distances graph

You can see that, at slow speeds, thinking distance is more important. However, above 20 mph braking distance is the biggest component of stopping distance.

This means that - no matter how alert a driver may be - the distance required to stop the car is in the hands of the brakes.


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