Car accelerates from rest to a speed of 36 km/h in 20 seconds. What is...
Calculation of Acceleration of a Car
Given, initial velocity (u) = 0 km/h
Final velocity (v) = 36 km/h
Time taken (t) = 20 seconds
Converting units from km/h to m/s
In order to calculate acceleration, we need to convert the units of velocity from km/h to m/s because acceleration is measured in m/s2. We know that 1 km/h = 0.2778 m/s. Therefore,
Initial velocity (u) = 0 km/h x 0.2778 = 0 m/s
Final velocity (v) = 36 km/h x 0.2778 = 10 m/s
Calculating Acceleration
We know that acceleration (a) can be calculated using the formula:
a = (v - u) / t
Substituting the values we get,
a = (10 m/s - 0 m/s) / 20 s
a = 0.5 m/s2
Explanation
Acceleration is the rate at which an object changes its velocity. In this case, the car starts from rest and reaches a velocity of 36 km/h in 20 seconds. We have converted the units to m/s and used the formula a = (v - u) / t to calculate the acceleration of the car. The acceleration is 0.5 m/s2, which means that the car is increasing its velocity by 0.5 m/s every second.
It is important to note that acceleration can be either positive or negative. A positive acceleration means that the velocity of the object is increasing, while a negative acceleration means that the velocity is decreasing. In this case, the acceleration is positive because the velocity of the car is increasing from rest to 36 km/h.