A car drives along a long straight road, with its engine producing constant power
P0. A headwind blows against the car with instantaneous speed
vwind, fluctuating about a mean value
v (with
vwind always positive). The air drag force on the car is
Avrel2, where
A is a constant and
vrel is the relative speed between the car and the air.
If the wind were perfectly steady at
vwind=v, the car would settle to a steady speed
v0 satisfying
P0=Av0(v0+v)2. The car's speed adjusts quasi-statically to the wind fluctuations (it is always at its instantaneous equilibrium speed). What is the time-averaged car speed
vcar?