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33 votes
A 1,500 lb dragster accelerates from zero to 250mi/hr in 5s. What is the acceleration in ft/s^2?

User IanStallings
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1 Answer

13 votes
13 votes

We know that the acceleration is defined as:


a=(v_f-v_0)/(t)

in this case we know the initial velocity (zero) the final velocity (250mi/h) and the time it takes to accelerate. Before we can use this formula we need to convert the final velocity to feet per second, then :


250(mi)/(h)\cdot\frac{1\text{ h}}{3600\text{ s}}\cdot\frac{5280\text{ ft}}{1\text{ mi}}=366.667(ft)/(s)

Now that we know this we can plug the values in the formula for the acceleration:


a=(366.667-0)/(5)=73.33

Therefore the acceleration is 73.33 ft per second per second.

User Aravind
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