Question

A car travels on a straight, level road. (a) Starting from rest, the car is going 38 ft/s (26 mi/h) at the end of 4.0 s. What is the car's average acceleration in ft/s2? (b) In 3.0 more seconds, the car is going 76 ft/s (52 mi/h). What is the car's average acceleration for this time period?

Answer 1

Answer:

$a)9.5\frac{ft}{s^2}\\ b) 12.66\frac{ft}{s^2}$

Explanation:

A body has acceleration when there is a change in the velocity vector, either in magnitude or direction. In this case we only have a change in magnitude. The average acceleration represents the speed variation that takes place in a given time interval.

a)

$a_{avg}=\frac{\Delta v}{\Delta t}\\a_{avg}=\frac{v_{f}-v_{i}}{t_{f}- t_{i}}\\a_{avg}=\frac{38\frac{ft}{s}-0}{4 s- 0}=9.5\frac{ft}{s^2}$

b)

$a_{avg}=\frac{\Delta v}{\Delta t}\\a_{avg}=\frac{v_{f}-v_{i}}{t_{f}- t_{i}}\\a_{avg}=\frac{76\frac{ft}{s}-38\frac{ft}{s}}{7 s- 4s}\\a_{avg}=\frac{38\frac{ft}{s}}{3s}=12.66\frac{ft}{s^2}$