Question

A car goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour north in 5 seconds. What is the car's acceleration?

Answer 1

Its average acceleration is `12` miles per hour per second, or about `5.36 ms^(-2)`

Explanation:

To find the average acceleration just divide the increase in velocity by the time interval:

`60/5 = 12`

This is in miles per hour per second, a rather messy unit. Let us convert it to meters per second per second:

One mile is `1609.344` meters and one hour is `3600` seconds.

So `12` miles per hour per second in meters per second per second is:

`12 * 1609.344 / 3600 = 5.36448 ~~ 5.36`

Refer to @shwetank-m 's answer for a calculation in `"ft"` `"s"^(-2)`

Answer 2

17.6 feet / second ^2.

Explanation:

0 to 60 miles per hour means 0 to 88 feet/sec in five seconds (60 multiplied by 5280 (feet in one mile) divided by 3600 (seconds in an hour). Hence acceleration is 17.6 feet / second ^2.