Question

This motion map represents the movement of two animals.

A motion map. The position line is a long black arrow pointing right with x as the reference point at left. Above the line are three dots, each with a vector pointed away from x back to back in a line labeled B. Above B, there are four dots, each with a shorter vector pointing away from x in a line labeled A starting closer to x.
Examine the motion map. One animal is an antelope that is already running. The other is a cheetah that starts running after the antelope passes it. Does A or B represent the motion of the cheetah?
Assume the first dot for animal A represents t = 0. At which time does animal B overtake animal A?
t = ? seconds

Answer 1

Vector A represents the motion of the cheetah and vector B represents the motion of the antelope. The cheetah overtakes the antelope at t = 3 seconds.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the motion map, vector A represents the motion of the cheetah. This is because vector A starts closer to the reference point and moves away from it, indicating that the cheetah starts running after the antelope passes it. Vector B, on the other hand, starts farther away from the reference point and moves back towards it, indicating that the cheetah is already running before the antelope passes it.

To determine at which time the cheetah overtakes the antelope, we need to find the time at which the position of the cheetah matches the position of the antelope. We can do this by finding the intersection point of the position lines for animal A and animal B on the motion map.

Based on the motion map, it looks like the intersection point occurs at the fourth dot on animal A, which represents a time of t = 3 seconds.