Question

A group of students are discussing the conditions in which acceleration is positive vs negative. A student claims that acceleration is negative when an object is slowing down because acceleration always has the same sign as delta v.

What part of the student''s argumenit (if any) is correct?
What part of the student's argument ( if any) is incorrect?

Answer 1

The correct part of the student's argument is that acceleration does have the same sign as the change in velocity (Δv). The incorrect part is assuming that negative acceleration always implies slowing down; it depends on the direction of the initial velocity.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's argument contains both correct and incorrect elements. The correct part of the argument is that acceleration does indeed have the same sign as the change in velocity (Δv). If an object is slowing down, its velocity is decreasing, and the acceleration is in the opposite direction of the initial velocity, resulting in a negative acceleration.

However, the incorrect part of the argument is the assumption that negative acceleration always implies slowing down. In reality, negative acceleration means a decrease in the magnitude of velocity, which could result in slowing down if the object is moving in the positive direction. However, if the object is initially moving in the negative direction, negative acceleration might lead to an increase in speed, not necessarily a complete stop or slowing down.