Why do cars seem to decelerate faster when at a higher speed than at a lower speed?

Question

When exiting off of an interstate, why does the car seem to go from 75mph to 50mph faster than 25mph to 0mph? The road composition, grade of the road, or the tires on the vehicle never changed, yet the car seems to maintain its velocity at the slower speeds.

In: Physics

Answer 1

So I’ll preface that I’m NOT a physics professor or anything. That being said – I know that the faster something is going, the more energy it takes to KEEP it going that speed. That means the faster something with car like conditions is going (friction, air resistance) the more it “wants” to slow down.

There’s a lot of forces working against a car maintaining 75 mph where at 25 mph those slowing down forces are in effect at a much lower level.

Hopefully that makes sense.