Calculate Acceleration for Race Car Driving

[Thousands]

1. If your car goes from 0 mi/h to 40 mi/h in
5 s, what is your average acceleration?
Answer in units of
miles
h · s



2. i think i multiply 40 times the 5 and then the answer by something else. I'm not too sure

 

[berkeman]

1. If your car goes from 0 mi/h to 40 mi/h in
5 s, what is your average acceleration?
Answer in units of
miles
h · s



2. i think i multiply 40 times the 5 and then the answer by something else. I'm not too sure

The acceleration will be the change in velocity, divided by the time it took to change that velocity. Think of it this way -- the smaller the time, the higher the acceleration, right?

Now what do you think you do to get the answer?

 

[Thousands]

then i just divide 40 by 5 right?

 

[berkeman]

then i just divide 40 by 5 right?

Yes. The mixed units for the answer that they ask for are quite strange, and you normally would not leave your answer in mixed units, but they seem to be doing that just to make it easier for you to do the first steps of the math.

 

[rwisz]

I would approach this problem by first understanding the definition of acceleration, which is the rate of change of velocity over time. In this case, the initial velocity is 0 mi/h and the final velocity is 40 mi/h, and the time taken is 5 seconds. To calculate the average acceleration, we can use the formula acceleration = (final velocity - initial velocity)/time. Plugging in the values, we get (40 mi/h - 0 mi/h)/5 s = 8 mi/h · s. Therefore, the average acceleration for this race car is 8 mi/h · s.

To address the second part of the content, it seems like the individual is trying to calculate the acceleration by multiplying the final velocity by the time. This is incorrect as it does not take into account the initial velocity. It is important to use the correct formula and input all the relevant values to accurately calculate acceleration.