To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what problem 32 is asking. It seems like there's set up to a question, but the actual question itself is missing.
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For problem 33, we divide the tape's distance by its time. I'm assuming that problem 33 is using the set up info from problem 32.
Recall that
distance = rate*time
we can rearrange things to say
rate = distance/time
So that's why we divide distance over time. The tape's length is effectively the distance, more or less. Imagine that one marker on the tape travels from one end of the reel to the other. It would have to travel the length of the tape when the full tape duration elapses.
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So,
rate = distance/time
rate = (260 meters)/(180 seconds)
rate = (260/180) meters per second
rate = 1.44 meters per second, which is approximate
I'm rounding to 3 sig figs.
