Question

1. A city bus travels 6 blocks east and 8 blocks north. Each block is 100 m long. If the bus travels this distance in 15mins, what is the average speed of the bus (m/s)? 2. Using the information from the previous question, what is the average velocity of the city bus?

Answer 1

Answer:

1) 1.56 m/s

2) 1.11 m/s

Explanation:

The bus travels 6 blocks east and 8 blocks west

Each block is 100 m long

time taken to travel through this distance = 15 min

average speed of the bus = ?

the total blocks traveled = 6 + 8 = 14 blocks

total distance traveled = 14 x 100 m = 1400 m

time taken = 15 min = 15 x 60 sec = 900 sec

average speed of the bus = distance traveled/time taken

==> 1400/900 = 1.56 m/s

2) velocity = displacement/time taken

displacement is the shortest distance between the starting position and the final position of the bus.

The displacement of this bus will be the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the motion of the bus

the distance traveled east = 6 x 100 = 600 m

the distance traveled north = 8 x 100 = 800 m

displacement = $\sqrt{800^2 + 600^2}$ = 1000 m

The velocity of the bus = 1000/900 = 1.11 m/s