Question

A bike travels past you at 16 miles per hour. To study its movement using physics, you need to translate its speed into meters per second. If the ratio of meters to miles is 1 mile per 1609 meters, and the ratio of an hour to seconds is 1 hour per 3600, what is the bike's speed in meters per second?

a) 7.15 m/s
b) 10.03 m/s
c) 4.47 m/s
d) 2.77 m/s

Answer 1

The bike's speed in meters per second is obtained by multiplying 16 miles per hour by the respective conversion factors, resulting in approximately 7.15 m/s, which is option (a).

Step-by-step explanation:

To convert the bike's speed from miles per hour to meters per second, we use the given conversion factors. Starting with a speed of 16 miles per hour, we convert this to meters by noting that there are 1609 meters in a mile, and then we convert hours to seconds knowing there are 3600 seconds in an hour. So using the formula:

Speed (m/s) = Speed (mi/h) × (1609 meters/1 mile) × (1 hour/3600 seconds)

We calculate:

• Speed (m/s) = 16 mi/h × (1609 m/1 mi) × (1 h/3600 s)
• Speed (m/s) = (16 × 1609) m/h / 3600 s
• Speed (m/s) = 25744 m/h / 3600 s
• Speed (m/s) ≈ 7.15 m/s

Therefore, the bike's speed is approximately 7.15 meters per second, which corresponds to option (a).