what is the initial velocity and the acceleration?

Question

You are at a rest stop 250 kilometers north of New York City. You then travel north at a constant velocity of 65 kilometers per hour for 2.0 hours. what is the initial velocity and the acceleration for this problem?

Answer 1

Hello Ellyettie,

Since you are at a rest stop in the beginning, it's safe to assume that you are "parked" and the initial velocity is 0 km/hr.

As for the acceleration, is the question asking for the average acceleration over the entire trip? This can be calculated as follows:

average acceleration = (v_f - v₀)/t

where v_f is the final velocity of the trip and v₀ is the initial velocity

Plugging in we get:

average acceleration = (65 - 0)/2 = 32.5 km/hr.²

I don't believe the instantaneous acceleration at any point is calculable since the problem did not state the time taken to go from rest to a velocity of 65 km/hr.