Question

Select the correct answer. A bicycle traveled 150 meters west from point A to point B. Then it took the same route and came back to point A. It took a total of 2 minutes for the bicycle to return to point A. What is the average speed and average velocity of the bicycle? A. The average speed is 2.5 meters/second, and the average velocity is 2.5 meters/second east. B. The average speed is 0 meters/second, and the average velocity is 2.5 meters/second east. C. The average speed and average velocity are both 0 meters/second. D. The average speed is 2.5 meters/second, and the average velocity is 0 meters/second.

Answer 1

Answer:

Option D: Average speed = 2.5 m/s, and average velocity = 0 m/s

Explanation:

To estimate the average speed we do the quotient of the total distance traveled divided the time it took:

Total distance: 150 m in one direction, plus 150 m coming back = 300 m

The total time is 2 minutes. Notice that the answers requested for speed are meters/seconds, so we need to convert the time into seconds: 2 minutes = 120 seconds.

Now we do the quotient to find the average speed:

$speed = \frac{300 m}{120 s} = 2.5\frac{m}{s}$

On the other hand, the average velocity involves the difference between the final and initial positions (which in our case are the same since the person goes back to the initial place), therefore that difference in positions results in zero.

The equation for average velocity can then be written as:

$V=\frac{Xf-Xi}{t} =\frac{0}{120} \frac{m}{s} = 0 \frac{m}{s}$