230,252 views
4 votes
4 votes
Please help me, I am able to help but not solve on my own.

Please help me, I am able to help but not solve on my own.-example-1
User David Waters
by
2.5k points

1 Answer

9 votes
9 votes
Step-by-step explanation

The distance traveled by a particle with velocity v(t) in the interval [3,13] is given by the following integral:


\int_3^(13)v(t)dt

However, we can't calculate this integral since we don't have the equation of v(t). What we do have is a table with the value of v for several t's. We can use the values in this table to approximate the integral I wrote above with a trapezoidal sum.

For the function v(t) we have:


\int_3^(13)v(t)dt=(1)/(2)\sum_{n\mathop{=}1}^4{}\lbrack v(t_(n-1))+v(t_n)\rbrack\cdot(\Delta t)_n

Where the t's with subindices are the t values given by the table:


\begin{gathered} t_0=3 \\ t_1=7 \\ t_2=10 \\ t_3=12 \\ t_4=13 \end{gathered}

And the Δt's are the lengths of the intervals defined by two consecutive t's. Let's find each Δt:


\begin{gathered} (\Delta t)_n=t_n-t_(n-1) \\ (\Delta t)_1=7-3=4 \\ (\Delta t)_2=10-7=3 \\ (\Delta t)_3=12-10=2 \\ (\Delta t)_4=13-12=1 \end{gathered}

Now I'm going to write the full expression of the trapezoidal sum (expanding the sum):


(1)/(2)\lbrace\lbrack v(t_0)+v(t_1)\rbrack(\Delta t)_1+\lbrack v(t_1)+v(t_2)\rbrack(\Delta t)_2+\lbrack v(t_2)+v(t_3)\rbrack(\Delta t)_3+\lbrack v(t_3)+v(t_4)\rbrack(\Delta t)_4\rbrace

Now we use the corresponding v(t) values from the table and we obtain:


\begin{gathered} (1)/(2)\lbrack(5+9)\cdot4+(9+14)\cdot3+(14+18)\cdot2+18+24\rbrack=(1)/(2)\cdot(14\cdot4+23\cdot3+32\cdot2+18+24) \\ =(1)/(2)\cdot231=115.5\approx\int_3^(13)v(t)dt \end{gathered}Answer

Then the answer is the third option, 115.50.

User Ben Croughs
by
2.6k points
Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.