Calculus 1 : Acceleration

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 1

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Example Questions

Example Question #291 : How To Find Acceleration

The position of a certain point is given by the following function:

What is the acceleration at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

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

In this case, the position function is: 

The velocity function is found by taking the derivative of the position function: 

The acceleration function is found by taking the derivative of the velocity function: 

Finally, to find the accelaration, substitute  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #291 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #292 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #683 : Spatial Calculus

A rocket begins at rest, and then begins to accelerate upwards at a constant rate. After 5 seconds, it has travelled 150 meters. How fast is it accelerating?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We'll need to first figure out how to express the rocket's position in terms of its acceleration, . This will give us an equation we can solve for .

The rocket begins at rest, so 

Initial and final time are given as 

We're also given that

Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity, which is the rate of change in position, so to find the equation for position, we'll ned to integrate and use initial conditions twice. 

To integrate, we use the following rule:

To solve for C, we'll use our initial condition, .

We'll need to integrate again to find position:

using the following rule:

Remember, when integrating we have to add the constant, C, to indicate that there's multiple functions that could be our answer.

Integrating then gives us:

To solve for C, we'll use our initial condition, .

 

Now, we know that , so we can solve for .

Example Question #293 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #294 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #295 : Acceleration

If the position of a particle is given by , find the equation for its acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity, which is the rate of change in position, so to answer this question, we'll need to differentiate this equation twice. First, we find the velocity, by applying the product rule

This gives us:

 

Differentiating that using the chain rule

 on each term gives us

Example Question #296 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #297 : Acceleration

The position of  is given by the following function: 

Find the acceleration.

Possible Answers:

Answer not listed

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find the acceleration of a certain point, you first find the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function. Then find the derivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

In this case, the position function is: 

Then take the derivative of the position function to get the velocity function: 

Then take the dervivative of the velocity function to get the acceleration function: 

Then, plug  into the acceleration function: 

Therefore, the answer is: 

Example Question #298 : Acceleration

The position of a particle is given by the equation . What is the particle's acceleration at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve this, we'll need to first differentiate the position function to get the velocity function, differentiate that function to get the acceleration function, and then plug our specific time into that funtion to get the acceleration at that moment. Differentiating the position equation term-by-term, using the power rule, which states that

and the constant rule, which states that the derivative of a constant is 0, we get

Applying the same rules to this equation gives us

Evaluating at   gives us 

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