Question

On a roller coaster ride at an amusement park, a car travels from 7.6 m/s to 56 m/s in 3 seconds. whats the cars acceleration?

a) no acceleration
b) 11 m/s^2
c) 235 m/s^2
d) 16 m/s^2

Answer 1

Acceleration is defined as rate of change in velocity

So we can write its formula as

`a = (v_f - v_i)/(t)`

here we know that

`v_f` = final velocity = 56 m/s

`v_i` = initial velocity = 7.6 m/s

t = time interval to change the velocity = 3 s

now we will plug in all values in the above equation

`a = (56 - 7.6)/(3)`

`a = (48.4)/(3)`

`a = 16.13 m/s^2`

so here roller coaster will accelerate at rate of 16 m/s^2 and hence correct answer is "option d"