Question

As an airplane is taking off at an airport its position is closely monitored by radar. The following three positions are measured with their corresponding times:

x1 = 186.91 m at t1 = 3.90 s,
x2 = 228.10 m at t2 = 4.40 s,
x3 = 273.59 m at t3 = 4.90 s.
What is the acceleration of the airplane at t2 = 4.40 s? (Assume that the acceleration of the airplane is constant.)

Answer 1

To find the acceleration of the airplane at t2 = 4.40 s, we can use the formula:

acceleration = (final velocity - initial velocity) / (final time - initial time)

Using the given positions and times, we can calculate the velocities at t1 and t2:

v1 = (x2 - x1) / (t2 - t1)

v2 = (x3 - x2) / (t3 - t2)

Then, we can calculate the acceleration at t2:

acceleration = (v2 - v1) / (t3 - t1)