Question

If an object with uniform acceleration (or deceleration) has a speed of `1 m/s` at `t=0` and moves a total of 180 m by `t=4`, what was the object's rate of acceleration?

Answer 1

`22 " ms"^-2`

Explanation:

The average speed of the particle over 4 s is `{180 " m"}/{4 " s"} = 45 "m"/"s"`.

Since for a uniformly moving object the average speed over an interval is the average of the initial and final speeds, the final speed must be `= 2times 45 "m"/"s" - 1 "m"/"s" = 89 "m"/"s"`.

Thus, the acceleration is `(89 " ms"^-1 - 1" ms"^-1)/{4" s"}=22 " ms"^-2`