Zero!, remember
the question asks for VELOCITY and not SPEED
You live 15Km from school. You leave and get half-way
there and remember you need to go to the store to pick up your lunch.
You spend 15minutes at the store then head right to school.
Assume your speed is 70Km/Hr the whole time.
What is your velocity on this trip?
Remember that you need displacement and time to get velocity.
The final displacement is easy: 15Km
Now we need the time. To the time, we must consider
all the parts of the trip...
| from house to turn-around | t=(7.5Km)/(70K/H) | .107 Hr |
| from turn-around to store | t=(6+7.5Km)/(70Km/H) | .193 Hr |
| time at store | 15min*(1Hr/60min) | .25 Hr |
| store to school | t=(21Km)/(70Km/H) | .3 Hr |
So our total time is .85 Hr.
We will call the home our zero point and the school is
in the + direction.
The formula for velocity is (Xf-Xo)/t,
15Km-0Km/.85Hr=17.65Km/Hr
NOTE: since all motion was at 70k/h,
we could have just added 7.5+7.5+6+6+15=42Km,
then 42k/70k/hr=.6Hr. Then
add in the .25Hr of store time: .25+.6=.85Hr
You know that your velocity on a trip is -2m/s and that
the trip took 24seconds. If you started at
a point given by +500m, then what is your final position?
We know that V=Xf-Xo/t, so Xf must
equal Vt+Xo... (-2m/s)24s+(+500m)=+452m
You get on a bus and start walking to the back.
You are eating a sandwich. A bug is on the sandwich. The bug
wants to escape, so is also heading toward the back of the bus.
Given these velocities, what is
the net velocity of the bug?
BUS= +2m/s
YOU= -1m/s
SANDWICH= +.05m/s
BUG= -.25m/s
The bug's velocity depends on all the others, so we just
add them all together....
(+2)+(-1)+(+.05)+(-.25)= +.8m/s,
with the "+" meaning the same direction as bus motion
note: this answer would be the
view of an observer standing outside the bus, watching you.
According to the bus driver, what
is the velocity of the sandwich?
Since the bus driver thinks he
is stationary, he sees the sandwich's velocity depend on 2 things:
the motion of the person eating
it, and the motion of the sandwich giong into your mouth.
(-1)+(+.05)= -.95m/s,
with the "-" meaning toward the back of the bus
Think about it. If you're
in a car with your friends zooming down the road at 60mi/hr, as far as
you're concerned, your velocities are all zero inside the car... you can
reach over and touch them. If someone passes you at 65mi/hr, they
would look to you like they were going just a little faster, YET to someone
on the sidewalk, both cars are going pretty fast!
Click here,
login, and complete the problem titled "average velocity".