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A roller coaster is stopped on a track. When the engineer presses a launch button on the coaster, the coaster moves forward. Explain this change in terms of balanced and unbalanced forces.
1) Displacement: -49 m, in the negative direction
Explanation:
The displacement of an object is a vector, whose magnitude is given by the difference between the final point of the motion and the starting point:

In this problem, the starting point is +34 m, while the final position is -15 m; therefore, the displacement is:

and the direction is negative, in according to the negative sign.
2) Velocity: -3.27 m/s
Explanation:
Velocity is equal to the ratio between the displacement and the time taken:

in this problem, we have:
d = -49 m is the displacement
t = 15 s is the time
therefore, the velocity is

and the direction is negative.