Question

You walk 20 m north then 30 m west for a total timer four minutes what is the magnitude of your average velocity in (m/s)

Answer 1

Answer:

The average velocity is 0.15 m/s

Explanation:

Use the definition of average velocity as the distance traveled divided the time it took.

Since the movement was on the plane from the origin (0, 0) to the point (-30, 20) corresponding to 30 m west and 20 m north, we calculate the distance using the distance between two points on the plane:

$distance=\sqrt{(x_2-x_1)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2} = \sqrt{(-30)^2+20^2} =\sqrt{1300} \approx 36.06\,\,m$

Then the magnitude of the average velocity can be estimated via the quotient between distance divided time, but since the units required are meters per second, we first convert the four minute time into seconds: 4 * 60 = 240 seconds.

Then the average velocity becomes:

$v_{ave}=\frac{distance}{time} =\frac{36.06}{240} =0.15\,\,m/s$