Question

Claudia is accelerating to get on the interstate. At the beginning of the south-facing on-ramp, she is traveling at 11 m/s. When she reaches the end of the on-ramp 9.0 seconds later, she is traveling at 29 m/s. Assuming south to be the negative direction, what is Claudia's average rate of acceleration during this period?

Answer 1

We are asked to determine the acceleration of an object. To do that we will use the fact that the magnitude of the acceleration is equivalent to the change in velocity over time, therefore we have:

$a=\frac{v_f-v_0}{t}$

Where vf is the final velocity, v0 is the initial velocity, and "t" is time. Replacing the values:

$a=\frac{29\text{ m/s-11 m/s}}{9s}$

Solving the operation:

$a=2\frac{m}{s^2}$

Therefore, the acceleration is -2 meters per second squared since she is moving in the negative direction.