To bring a car to a halt over the shortest distance on a horizontal road, one must

Step-by-step solution

To stop the car over the shortest possible distance, the deceleration must be maximum. The deceleration is provided by the frictional force between the tires and the road. The maximum possible frictional force is the limiting static friction, which is greater than the kinetic friction ( _s > _k ). If the brakes are applied extremely hard, the wheels lock and slide, resulting in kinetic friction which provides less deceleration. To utilize the maximum frictional force, the brakes should be applied firmly enough to j