All High School Physics Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #22 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
An object starts at rest and reaches a velocity of after seconds. What is the average acceleration of the object?
The relationship between acceleration and velocity is:
Acceleration is equal to the change in velocity over the change in time. If the object starts from rest, then we can set up an equation to solve for the change in velocity.
Using the terms from the question, we can see that the acceleration will be equal to the final velocity divided by the time.
Example Question #26 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
You are given a graph of velocity vs. time. Which of the following ways can be used to determine acceleration at any given point?
The acceleration is the total change in velocity over the total time
The acceleration is the area under the curve for any given time interval
The acceleration is the y-intercept of the velocity vs time graph
The acceleration cannot be determined from the graph
The acceleration is the slope at any particular point in time
The acceleration is the slope at any particular point in time
The important thing to note is that the question asks for the acceleration at any given point. The average acceleration will be equal to the net change in velocity divided by the total time, but the question is asking for the instantaneous acceleration.
Acceleration is calculated by a change in velocity over a change in time. In a velocity versus time graph, this is equal to the slope.
This tells us that the slope at a certain time will be equal to the acceleration at that time.
In calculus terms, acceleration is the derivative of the function for velocity in terms of time. What this means is that at any point on the graph, the instantaneous slope is the acceleration for that given time. To determine acceleration, one must find the slope of the line at that particular time interval.
Example Question #23 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
Sam throws a rock off the edge of a tall building at an angle of from the horizontal. The rock has an initial speed of .
If Sam then threw a rock instead, how would this affect its total horizontal distance travelled?
The distance would be quartered
The distance would be doubled
The distance would not change
The distance would be zero
The distance would quadruple
The distance would not change
The equation for distance travelled in the x-direction with parabolic motion is .
The mass of the object is not a variable in this calculation, and will not alter the horizontal velocity.
This can also be observed by analyzing the units for the velocity calculation.
Kilograms are not involved in the units, so mass will not be involved.
Changing the mass will not change the distance travelled; the rock will travel the same distance.
Example Question #24 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
Laurence throws a rock off the edge of a tall building at an angle of from the horizontal with an initial speed of .
.
A rock is thrown with the same initial velocity and angle from the top of the building. How would the horizontal distance traveled by this rock compare to the horizontal distance traveled by the lighter rock?
The heavier rock would travel twice as far
The heavier rock would travel times as far
The heavier rock would not move
They would travel the same distance
The heavier rock would travel half as far
They would travel the same distance
The equation for distance travelled in the horizontal direction is:
There is no acceleration in the horizontal direction, so this velocity is constant throughout flight.
There is no place for mass in this equation. Any objects thrown with the same velocity will travel the same distance. The two rocks with thus travel the same horizontal distance.
Example Question #24 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
While traveling along a highway, a specific automobile is capable of an acceleration of about . At this rate, how long does it take to accelerate from to ?
Knowns:
Unknowns:
Equation:
The most important thing to recognize here is that the initial and final velocities are not in the correct units. The first step is to convert both of these values to .
Then rearrange your equation to solve for (the missing variable).
Now plug in the variables and solve.
Example Question #31 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
Two locomotives approach each other on parallel tracks. They both have the same speed of with respect to ground. If they are initially apart, how long will it be before they reach each other?
Knowns:
Unknowns:
Equation:
Since both trains are traveling at a constant velocity and there is no acceleration the equation is
Rearrange this equation to solve for time.
Since both trains are traveling at the same speed, the trains will meet up in the middle of the total distance between the trains.
Plug this distance into the equation to find the time that it takes to travel the distance.
The answers provided are in minutes, so the final step is to convert the time to minutes.
Example Question #32 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
Derek rolls a ball along a flat surface with an initial velocity of . If it stops after 12 seconds, what was the acceleration on the ball?
Knowns:
Unknowns:
Equation:
Since the ball starts with a positive velocity and ends at rest, we can predict that the acceleration will be negative. Using the values given in the question and the equation below, we can solve for the acceleration.
Example Question #33 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
A car starts from rest, speeds up with constant acceleration and travels in . What is the final velocity and the acceleration of the car?
Knowns:
Unknowns:
Equation:
The easiest way to approach this problem is find the average velocity, multiply by 2 because the car started from rest, and then divide the final velocity by time to get the acceleration.
Average velocity:
The final velocity is because the car started from rest. This is evident from the equation for average velocity if we solve for final velocity:
To find the acceleration use the acceleration equation with the final velocity that was just calculated.
Example Question #121 : Linear Motion
A dog sits in a basket attached to the handlebars of a bicycle. If an outside observer sees the bicycle move with a velocity , what is the velocity of the dog relative to the observer?
We need to know more information to be able to solve
If the observer sees the bicycle moving with a uniform velocity , then that means all the parts of the bicycle together are moving with the same velocity. The dog, the cyclist, the handlebars, everything in the system (that is not moving independently, such as the pedals or the wheels) is moving with the same velocity .
Example Question #35 : Understanding Distance, Velocity, And Acceleration
In which of the following cases does an object have a negative velocity and a positive acceleration? An object that is traveling in the
direction a constant
direction increasing in speed
direction decreasing in speed
direction decreasing in speed
direction increasing in speed
direction decreasing in speed
To have a negative velocity the object must be traveling in the direction. The direction on the velocity vector indicates the direction of the motion of the object
If the velocity vector and acceleration vectors are pointing in opposite directions, then the object must be slowing down as the acceleration vector is opposing the motion of the object.
Therefore the object is traveling in the direction and decreasing in speed.
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