Question

A car is travelling at 20 m/s. It accelerates uniformly at 3 m/S2 for 5 s. What is the distance the car travels while it is accelerating?

Answer 1

To calculate the distance traveled by the car while it is accelerating, you can use the following equation:

$s=ut+\frac{1}{2}a{t}^2$

where:

• $s$ is the distance traveled
• $u$ is the initial velocity
• $a$ is the acceleration
• $t$ is the time

In this case, the initial velocity $u$ is 20 m/s, the acceleration $a$ is 3 m/s², and the time $t$ is 5 seconds. Substituting these values into the equation:

$s=(20\text{m/s})(5\text{s})+\frac{1}{2}(3{\text{m/s}}^2)(5\text{s}{)}^2$

Simplifying further:

s=100 m+12(3 m/s2)(25 s2)s = 100 , ext{m} + frac{1}{2}(3 , ext{m/s}^2)(25 , ext{s}^2)s=100m+2<span class="sizing res