Calculus 1 : Calculus

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 1

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Example Questions

Example Question #651 : Calculus

The position at a certain point is given by:

What is the acceleration at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a given point, you must first find the derivative of the position function which gives you the velocity function:

Then, you differentiate the velocity function to get the acceleration function:

Then, find  when .

The answer is: 

Example Question #261 : How To Find Acceleration

The position at a certain point is given by:

What is the acceleration at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a given point, you must first find the derivative of the position function which gives you the velocity function:

Then, you differentiate the velocity function to get the acceleration function:

Then, find  when .

The answer is: 

Example Question #262 : How To Find Acceleration

The path of the front car of a roller coaster at  seconds is modelled by the function 

.

What is the acceleration (in feet) of the roller coaster car at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Acceleration is the change in velocity (which itself is the change in position), so we are looking to solve for the h''(6).

To find the second derivative we must use the power rule for differentiation twice.

The power rule states,

.

Applying the power rule once we find the velocity of the function.

Applying the power rule a second time we find the acceleration of the function.

From here, substitute six in for t to solve for the specific acceleration.

Example Question #263 : How To Find Acceleration

For which position equation is the acceleration equal to 16 units/s/s at time  seconds?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since each position function is simply a polynomial, their respctive accelerations can easily be found by applying the power rule twice.

You will notice that each answer reduces to a constant when derived twice. There is only one answer for which the acceleration equals 16 at time t=5 (in fact, the acceleration equals 16 at all values of t).

In fact, because all monomials which include a power of x that is less than 2 will reduce to 0 (either from the first or the second derivation), we are only interested in what happens to the leading term throughout the derivations.

 

INCORRECT ANSWERS

(I) 

 

(II)

 

(III)

 

CORRECT ANSWER

 

 

 

Example Question #653 : Calculus

For which of the following posititon functions is acceleration zero at time ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Of each of the functions listed, the correct answer is the only function for which the acceleration equation reduces to a constant.

The second derivatives of the other functions clearly do not represent a constant acceleration of zero. In addition to this, each of the remaining functions haveexclusively positive accelerations (greater than zero) when t is positive. As small, and perhaps unfamiliar as  is, it is certainly positive, and for this reason the only possible answer to this question is  .

Example Question #262 : How To Find Acceleration

The position of a particle is given by the following function: 

 

What is the acceleration of the particle at ?

 

 
Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a particle at a certain point, we must find the second derivative.

To find the derivative we must use the trigonometric rules of differentiation for cosine and sine which states,

This is the first derivative, which gives us the velocity: 

We then differentiate the first derivative to get:

Then, find the value of  when :

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #653 : Spatial Calculus

The position of a particle is given by the following function: 

What is the acceleration of the particle at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a particle at a certain point, we must find the second derivative.

For this particular function we will need to apply the chain rule and power rule which state,

This is the first derivative, which gives us the velocity: 

We then differentiate the first derivative to get: 

Then, find the value of   when :

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #654 : Calculus

The position of a particle is given by the following function:

What is the acceleration of the particle at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a particle at a certain point, we must find the second derivative.

To find the derivative we must use the power rule which states,

This is the first derivative, which gives us the velocity:  

We then differentiate the first derivative to get: 

Then, find the value of   when :

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #655 : Calculus

The position of a particle is given by the following function:

What is the acceleration of the particle at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a particle at a certain point, we must find the second derivative.

To find the derivative we must use the power rule which states,

Also recall that the derivative of .

This is the first derivative, which gives us the velocity: 

We then differentiate the first derivative to get:

Then, find the value of  when :

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #262 : How To Find Acceleration

When is the acceleration equal to 0 when ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find acceleration, you must first find velocity, which is the derivative of position. To take the derivative, you must multiply the leading coefficient by the exponent and then subtract 1 from the exponent. Therefore, the velocity function is: . To find acceleration, take the derivative of velocity: . Then set that expression equal to 0 to get your answer: .

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