A car accelerates at 2.7 m/s/s for 5.4 s, reaching a speed of 18 m/s. During the period of acceleration, the car travels a distance of...

Question

A car accelerates at 2.7 m/s/s for 5.4 s, reaching a speed of 18 m/s. During the period of acceleration, the car travels a distance of...

I know how to find acceleration and velocity but I'm stuck. The answer is supposedly 58 m but I don't know how.

Answer 1

You are given the acceleration as 2.7 m/s² , you fist need to find the initial velocity as we know final velocity (18 m/s) and the time 5.4 s

Using v = v₀ + at

v₀= 18 - (2.7)(5.4)

v₀ = 3.42 m/s

We now use distance x = v₀t + 0.5 (a)(t²)

x = (3.42)(5.4) + (0.5)(2.7)(5.4²) = 18.5 + 39.4 = 57.9 meters. With sig figs this becomes 58 meters