Question

DRAW IT Draw a model of the control circuit(s) required for driving an automobile at a fairly constant speed over a hilly road. Indicate each feature that represents a sensor, stimulus, or response.

Short answer

A control circuit model for driving an automobile at a fairly constant speed over a hilly road.

The speedometer displaying the speed is the sensor. The car goes too slow while going uphill and picks up speed while traveling downhill. Therefore, the vehicle going “too slow” or “too fast” would be the stimulus.

Hitting the accelerator or brakes would be the response.

Step-by-step solution

Homeostasis

Maintaining a car at a constant speed is a regulating process for achieving stability. It is very similar to homeostasis. Homeostasis is a regulating process for keeping conditions stable in the body through adjustments.

The control circuit of an automobile

Driving a car with a constant speed over a hilly road requires sensors, stimulus, and response. In this situation, the sensor would be the speedometer, which measures and displays speed.

A speedometer would indicate whether a car is going at a reasonably constant speed. If not, it would inform the driver about the changes needed to attain a constant speed.

Based on the reading, the driver would accelerate, decelerate, and maintain a constant speed. Possible situations could be going uphill and downhill.

To maintain a constant speed while going uphill

While driving along uphill, the car would slow down. Therefore, the vehicle is not going at a constant speed; hence, “too slow” would be the stimulus. The driver would check the speedometer and find out that the car is going too slow.

To this stimulus, the driver would react to attain the constant speed. The driver's reaction would increase the car's speed as the vehicle is going too slow. The driver hits the accelerator to speed up as the response.

The speedometer displays the speed once the car speeds up and starts going at a constant rate.

To maintain a constant speed while going downhill

While going downhill, the car would pick up speed; hence, “too fast” would be the stimulus. The sensor would be the speedometer. To decrease the rate, one would hit the brakes as a response.

Once brakes are applied, the car slows down, speed gets reflected on the speedometer. In this manner, one can maintain a constant speed.