Question

A fighter jet is catapulted off an aircraft carrier from rest to 75 m/s. If the aircraft carrier deck is 100 m long, what is the acceleration of the jet?

Answer 1

We can find the acceleration of the fighter jet from the kinematic equation:

$$v^2=v_0^2+2as,$$

here, $v_0=0\ \dfrac{m}{s}$ is initial velocity of the fighter jet, $v=75\ \dfrac{m}{s}$ is the final velocity of the fighter jet, $a$ is the acceleration of the fighter jet and $s=100\ m$ is the length of the aircraft carrier deck.

Then, from this equation we can find the acceleration of the fighter jet:

$$a=\dfrac{v^2}{2s}=\dfrac{(75\ \dfrac{m}{s})^2}{2\cdot 100\ m}=28.1\ \dfrac{m}{s^2}.$$

Answer:

$a=28.1\ \dfrac{m}{s^2}.$