Headway and breaking distance calculations

[andyrail]

I,m studying for Mod2 but I am struggling with the maths involved. I understand that these headway and breaking distance calculations are massively important in order to position the signals correctly. But to be quite frank when I look at these equations which are offered as examples in various text books I guess they are aimed at people with a much higher level in maths than me.
Could anyone recommend a book which could explain the maths in a simple way or shown me a calculation with explanation in detail, I guess my big problem is that when I look at a calculation that is the answer to the question I am confused by the brackets and strange(to me) letters in the sum. I know this makes me sound a little thick to people who have studied maths to a reasonable level but these calculations are a massive hurdle to me, any help or suggestions will be very welcome.

[Peter]

I,m studying for Mod2 but I am struggling with the maths involved. I understand that these headway and breaking distance calculations are massively important in order to position the signals correctly. But to be quite frank when I look at these equations which are offered as examples in various text books I guess they are aimed at people with a much higher level in maths than me.
Could anyone recommend a book which could explain the maths in a simple way or shown me a calculation with explanation in detail, I guess my big problem is that when I look at a calculation that is the answer to the question I am confused by the brackets and strange(to me) letters in the sum. I know this makes me sound a little thick to people who have studied maths to a reasonable level but these calculations are a massive hurdle to me, any help or suggestions will be very welcome.

Right at the start of this forum, I put together this piece to try to explain the basic maths for the laws of motion involved to show how speed, distance and time are related. This does not explain the formulae that you will see for the headway bits and the best place to look for this would be in the IRSE study guide. Have you got access to a copy of it?

If you have specific questions or want explanation of a particular equation, please ask here.

Peter