I was thinking about how trains stop, the engineer pulls a lever which releases air from the brakes, which makes the wheels slow down.
Intuitively longer trains take longer to stop because they have a lot more momentum, but obviously they also have more wheels and brakes. I'm guessing that a 100 car train will have the same "brake to weight" ratio as a 10 car train.
I read that the delay between the lever being pulled and the air being released toward the back of the train contribute to the braking distance. Before the last car even starts braking the train has already moved forward.
But in a perfect system where all of the brakes are applied at the same time, would a train with 100 cars take longer to stop than one with 10 cars? Assuming each individual car has the same mass and braking force. After all if you had 100 semi trucks driving on a motorway and had them brake at the same time, they'd stop within the same distance as a single semi would. Is that the same for trains?