Calculus 1 : Position

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 1

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Example Questions

Example Question #11 : How To Find Position

If the velocity of an object is represented by , what is the position of the object at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the position given the velocity curve, take the antiderivative of .

Solve for,

 .

Example Question #1 : Integration

Find the position function given the velocity function: 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the position from the velocity function, integrate 

 by increasing the exponent of each t term and then dividing that term by the new exponent value.

Example Question #12 : How To Find Position

Suppose the velocity function of an object is .  What is the position of the object at time ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the position function given the velocity, the velocity function needs to be integrated.

Solve for .

Example Question #13 : How To Find Position

Suppose an object's acceleration function is .  The object's velocity is .  What should be the object's position at that velocity?

Possible Answers:

There is not enough information.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Integrate  to obtain the velocity function, .

Since velocity is 6, .  Substitute and solve for time.

Since negative time does not exist, the only valid solution for t at this velocity is .

Integrate the velocity function  to find the position function, .

Substitute  to  to obtain the position.

 

Example Question #14 : How To Find Position

Consider the velocity function given by

Find the equation which models the position of a particle if its velocity can be modeled by

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Recall that velocity is the first derivative of position and acceleration is the second derivative of position. Therfore, we need to integrate v(t) to find p(t)

So our answer is:

 

Example Question #2 : Integration

Consider the velocity function given by

Find the position of a particle after  seconds if its velocity can be modeled by  and the graph of its position function passes through the point .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Recall that velocity is the first derivative of position and acceleration is the second derivative of position. Therfore, we need to integrate v(t) to find p(t)

So we get:

What we ultimately need is p(5), but first we need to find c: Use the point (2,2)

So our position function is:

Example Question #15 : How To Find Position

The velocity of an object is given by the equation . What is the position of the object at , if the object has an initial position of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The position of the object can be found by integrating the velocity equation  given.

The position equation is 

Increase the exponent of each term and then divide that term by the number number that is in the exponent.

We can solve for the constant  using the initial position,

Therefore 

Now we can solve for the position at t=2

 

Example Question #16 : How To Find Position

If the acceleration of an object is zero at , which of the following answers best represents the position of the object?

Possible Answers:

None of the numerical answers are correct.

All of the numerical answers are correct.

Correct answer:

All of the numerical answers are correct.

Explanation:

Given the acceleration is zero, integrate the acceleration equation twice to obtain the position equation.

Integrate again to get the position function.

Substitute .

Since is a constant, the position of the object can be anywhere when acceleration is zero.

Therefore, all of the numerical answers are correct.

Example Question #11 : How To Find Position

The velocity of an object is given by the equation . What is the position of the object at  if it has an initial position of zero?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given the velocity equation , we can find the position by differentiating the velocity equation. This can be done using the power rule, which in general form is:

.

Therefore, the integral of the velocity equation is 

.

Using the initial position of 0, we can solve for the integration constant.

The complete position equation is then,

.

Therefore, at , the position will be,

.

Example Question #18 : How To Find Position

The acceleration of an object is given by the equation . What is the position equation of the object, if the initial velocity of the object is  with an initial position of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The position equation of the onject can be found by integrating the acceleration equation  twice.

To integrate the acceleration equation we must use the power rule for the second term of the acceleration where if

.

The acceleration equation can also be written as .

Applying the power rule to the acceleration equation with the knowledege that the integral of  is  gives us the velocity equation.

We now use the initial velocity of the object to solve for the velocity equation.

Therefore

The velocity equation is then  

Differientiating this equation will give the position equation of the object. We must again use the power rule and the knowledge that the integral of  is . Rewriting the velocity equation as 

.

Differentiating this equation gives us,

Using the initial position of the object we can solve for .

Therefore,  and the position equation is

 

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