After 3.0 h, an object's displacement is 2.60 x 102 km north. What is the average velocity of the object?

Answer 1

Hi Latasha

The magnitude, or size, of an object's velocity is simply the displacement divided by the time. Since the displacement is 2.60(10²) km, or 260 km, and the time is 3.0 hours, the magnitude of the velocity is

260/3 which equals 86.7 km/h. Remembering that velocity is a vector, you must indicate the direction as well. So, the velocity is 86.7 km/h north.

If you wanted the velocity in meters per second, you could convert the displacement to meters and the time into seconds. 260 km = 260,000 m and 3.0 h = 10,800 s. The velocity would then be 260,000/10,800 = 24.1 m/s north.

Hope this helps!