Question

On the way to school, the bus speeds up from 20 m/s to 36 m/s in 4 seconds. What distance does the bus cover in this time frame?

Answer 1

We can find the distance covered by the bus from the kinematic equation:

$$d = \dfrac{v_i + v_f}{2}t,$$

here, $d$ is the distance covered by the bus, $v_i = 20 m/s$ is the initial velocity of the bus, $v_f = 36 m/s$ is the final velocity of the bus, $t = 4 s$ is time during which the bus speeds up.

Then, from this formula we can calculate the distance covered by the bus:

$$d = \dfrac{v_i + v_f}{2}t = \dfrac{20 \dfrac{m}{s} + 36 \dfrac{m}{s}}{2} \cdot 4 s = 112 m.$$

Answer:

$d = 112 m.$