Find the magnitude of acceleration of a jeep that initially moving at 18 m/s and comes to a complete stop in 4.2 s.

Question

Please help me Answer this Question.. This is for my homework.. Please Help me.. Its kinda hard for me..

 

Find the magnitude of acceleration of a jeep that initially moving at 18 m/s and comes to a complete stop in 4.2 s.

Answer 1

Acceleration is defined to be the change in velocity divided by the time it takes. If the jeep comes to a complete stop, then it has 0 velocity.

 

The magnitude of the acceleration is therefore

 

18/4.2

 

Which gets around 4.3

 

*NOTE* the acceleration formula is actually (final velocity - initial velocity) / (change in time)

 

Using the *true* formula would give us a negative accelerations (which makes sense, because the jeep slows down). However, the problem asked for the magnitude, which is the positive value of the acceleration.

 

I hope this helps!