Question

An airplane travels for 8s down the runway before taking off. If it starts from rest, moves with constant acceleration and becomes airborne at the speed v=130mph, what is its Distance traveled before take-off?

Answer 1

To find the distance traveled by an airplane accelerating uniformly on a runway, convert the speed from mph to m/s, calculate acceleration with the formula v = u + at, and then compute the distance using s = ut + 0.5at².

Step-by-step explanation:

The question at hand involves an airplane that starts from a stationary position and accelerates uniformly along a runway. We are given that the airplane reaches a speed of 130 mph (which we need to convert to a uniform unit for calculation) within a time span of 8 seconds. Since the initial speed (u) is 0 (starting from rest) and final speed (v) is known, along with the time (t), we can compute the acceleration (a) and the distance (s) traveled by using the following kinematic equations:

• v = u + at (to calculate acceleration)
• s = ut + 0.5at² (to calculate distance)

First, convert the speed from mph to meters per second (1 mph ≈ 0.44704 m/s) and then use the first equation to find acceleration. Subsequently, use the acceleration and time to find the distance covered by the airplane using the second equation.