Question

A cheetah can go from a state of resting to running at 20 m/s in just two seconds. What is the cheetah's average acceleration?

Answer 1

A cheetah can go from rest to running at 20m/s in 2 seconds. Plug in 2 for s

20/2

Simplify. Divide.

20/2 = 10

10 meters per second² is your average acceleration

Answer 2

Answer

10 m/s^2

Explanation

To solve this, we are using the average acceleration formula:

$a=\frac{v_{f}-v_{i}}{t_{f}-t_{i}}$

where

$a$ is the average acceleration

$v_{i}$ is the initial velocity

$v_{f}$ is the final velocity

$t_{i}$ is the initial time

$t_{f}$ is the final time

Since the cheetah go from state of resting, the initial velocity and time are both zero, so $v_{i}=0$ and $t_{i}=0$. Now, the cheetah go from resting to 20 m/s in two seconds, so $v_{f}=\frac{20m}{s}$ and $t_{f}=2s$.

Now that we have our values, let's replace them in our formula to find $a$:

$a=\frac{\frac{20m}{s}-0}{2s-0}$

$a=\frac{\frac{20m}{s}}{2s}$

$a=\frac{\frac{20m}{s}}{2s}$

$a=\frac{20m}{2s^2}$

$a=\frac{10m}{s^2}$

The average acceleration of the cheetah is 10 m/s^2