course
An object travels a distance of 32 cm in 17.6 seconds from start to finish. If its acceleration is uniform and its initial velocity zero, then what are its average velocity, acceleration and final velocity?
vAve = `ds / `dt
32 cm / 17.6 sec
1.8 cm/sec
aAve = `dv / `dt
1.8 cm/sec / 17.6 sec
.103 cm/sec^2
A very common error at this point is to confuse `dv with vAve.
`dv is not the same as vAve. The latter is the average velocity, the former is the change in velocity. The two are not in general related. For example if you move at high speed without changing velocity, vAve would be high and `dv would be zero.
In the present situation the initial velocity is zero. In order to get an average velocity of 1.8 cm/s, what would the final velocity have to be?
What therefore would be the change in velocity?
What then would be the average acceleration aAve = `dv / `dt?