Question

The car salesman tells you that the car can go from a stopped position to 60 miles per hour in 6 seconds. He is giving you the car's rate of

Answer 1

He is giving you the car's rate of acceleration.

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time.

Answer 2

He tells you (a speed) per (a time). That's a rate of acceleration .

Let's find out what the acceleration is:

(60 mile/hour) / (6 seconds)

= 10 miles/hour-second

Weird units. Let's convert to something easier.

(10 mi/hr-sec) x (5280 ft/mi) x (1 hr / 3600 sec)

= 14-2/3 ft/sec² = about 0.46 'G'

about 4.47 meter/s²