Question

A shark is swimming at 10 m/s west when it spots some floating bait caught in some seaweed straight ahead. After 10 s, and traveling at a velocity of 15 m/s, the shark reaches the bait. What was the shark's average acceleration? A. 0.5 m/s² B. 0.5 m/s² east C. 0.5 m/s² west D. 10 m/s²

Answer 1

Answer:

The average acceleration is 0.5 m/s² west

Explanation:

As we know that

Acceleration =  

Putting the values

Acceleration =

Acceleration = 0.5

Since the shark was moving in west so the Acceleration will be in west too

Answer 2

Answer:

C. 0.5 m/s² west

Explanation:

The shark average acceleration is given by the following equation:

$a=\frac{v-u}{t}$

where:

u = 10 m/s west is the initial velocity of the shark

v = 15 m/s west is the final velocity

t = 10 s is the time taken

Plugging numbers into the formula, we find

$a=\frac{15 m/s-10 m/s}{10 s}=0.5 m/s^2$

and the direction is west, because the shark speeds up in the same direction of the initial velocity, so the acceleration is positive and therefore in the same direction.