Question

Professional application dr. john paul stapp was u.s. air force officer who studied the effects of extreme deceleration on the human body. on december 10, 1954, stapp rode a rocket sled, accelerating from rest to a top speed of 282 m/s (1015 km/h) in 5.00 s, and was brought jarringly back to rest in only 1.40 s! calculate his (a) acceleration and (b) deceleration. express each in multiples of ? (9.80 m/s2) by taking its ratio to the acceleration of gravity.

Answer 1

a) Acceleration= (282m/s-0m/s)/5.0s= 56.4m/s^2
b) Deceleration=(0m/s-282m/s)/1.40s=201.4m/s^2 (here we reject negative because deceleration already take into account negative)
c) for the first one the multiple will be 5.76g
for the second one it will be 20.6g