Question

A car is traveling at 50 ms-¹from rest cover s distance of 10km in 40, minutes, Calculate the acceleration.

Answer 1

We can find the acceleration of the car from the kinematic equation:

$$d=v_0t+\dfrac{1}{2}at^2.$$

Since the car starts from rest ($v_0=0$), we can write:

$$d=\dfrac{1}{2}at^2,$$ $$a=\dfrac{2d}{t^2},$$ $$a=\dfrac{2\cdot10000\ m}{(40\cdot60\ s)^2}=3.5\cdot10^{-3}\ \dfrac{m}{s^2}.$$