Question

What is the acceleration of an airplane maintaining a constant speed of 67.7 m/s?

Answer 1

Answer: Zero

Explanation:

The acceleration of the plane is given by:

$a=\frac{\Delta v}{\Delta u}$

where

$\Delta v$ is the change in velocity

$\Delta t$ is the time taken

In this problem, we are told that the airplane is traveling at constant speed, so (assuming it is traveling in a straight line*), its velocity is not changing. Therefore, $\Delta v=0$ and the acceleration is zero.

*if the airplane is changing direction, then its velocity is changing (because velocity is a vector), so the acceleration in this case would not be zero.