Exercises on Vectors, Scalars and Coordinate

System

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. A student writes, “A bird that is diving for prey has a speed of -8 m/s.” What is
wrong with the student’s statement? What has the student actually described?
Explain. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.
2. (a) Does it make sense to say that a vector is negative? Why? (b) Does it make
sense to say that one vector is the negative of another? Why? Does your answer
here contradict what you said in part (a)?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. A weather forecast states that the temperature is predicted to be 35 ⁰C the
following day. Is this temperature a vector or a scalar quantity?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. Given the following vectors lying on the x-axis: 𝐴⃗ = 5 𝑚, 𝐵
⃗⃗ = 10 𝑚, 𝐶⃗ = −8 𝑚 and
⃗⃗ = −3 𝑚. Compute the following:
𝐷
a. 𝐴⃗ + 𝐶⃗ − 𝐵
⃗⃗

b. (𝐴⃗ + 𝐶⃗) − (𝐵
⃗⃗ − 𝐷
⃗⃗)

⃗⃗ + 𝐶⃗) − (𝐶⃗ − 𝐵
c. (𝐵 ⃗⃗)

d. (2𝐴⃗ − 3𝐷 ⃗⃗ + 𝐶⃗)
⃗⃗) − 5(𝐵
 Exercises on Displacement

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. Under what circumstances does the distance traveled equal to the magnitude
of displacement? What is the only case in which the magnitude of displacement
and the distance are the same?
Explain. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.
2. Is it possible to have zero displacement but a non-zero distance traveled? Site an
example.
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. A man standing 5 m left of the bus stop started walking for a distance of 100 m to
the direction which to left of the bus stop. (a.) What is his position relative to the
bus stop? (b.) What is his displacement?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. Bacteria move back and forth by using their flagella (structures that look like little
tails). Speeds of up to 50 μm/s (50 × 10−6 m/s) have been observed. The total
distance traveled by a bacterium is large for its size, while its displacement is
small. Why is this?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. Given the different path shown in the figure below
Find the distance traveled, the magnitude of the displacement from start to
finish, and the displacement from start to finish for the following:
a. for path A
b. for path B
c. for path C
d. for path D

Answers:
 Exercises on Time, Velocity and Speed

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. There is a distinction between average speed and the magnitude of average

velocity. Give an example that illustrates the difference between these two
quantities.
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. If you divide the total distance traveled on a car trip (as determined by the
odometer) by the time for the trip, are you calculating the average speed or the
magnitude of the average velocity? Under what circumstances are these two
quantities the same?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. The North American and European continents are moving apart at a rate of
about 3 cm/yr. At this rate how long will it take them to drift 500 km farther apart
than they are at present?
Answer:

4. A student drove to the university from her home and noted that the odometer
reading of her car increased by 12.0 km. The trip took 18.0 min. (a) What was her
average speed? (b) If the straight-line distance from her home to the university is
10.3 km to the east, what was her average velocity? (c) If she returned home by
the same path 7 h 30 min after she left, what were her average speed and
velocity for the entire trip?
Answer:
 Exercises on Acceleration

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. If a subway train is moving to the left (has a negative velocity) and then comes
to a stop, what is the direction of its acceleration? Is the acceleration positive or
negative?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. Is it possible for an object (a) to be slowing down while its acceleration is

increasing in magnitude; (b) to be speeding up while its acceleration is
decreasing? In each case, explain your reasoning.
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. A cheetah can accelerate from rest to a speed of 30.0 m/s in 7.00 s. What is its
acceleration?
Answer:

4. Dr. John Paul Stapp was U.S. Air Force officer who studied the effects of extreme
deceleration on the human body. On December 10, 1954, Stapp rode a rocket
sled, accelerating from rest to a top speed of 282 m/s (1015 km/h) in 5.00 s, and
was brought jarringly back to rest in only 1.40 s. Calculate his (a) acceleration
and (b) deceleration. Express each in multiples of 𝑔(9.8 m/s2) by taking its ratio to
the acceleration of gravity.
Answer:

5. A commuter backs her car out of her garage with an acceleration of 1.40 m/s2.
(a) How long does it take her to reach a speed of 2.00 m/s? (b) If she then brakes
to a stop in 0.800 s, what is her deceleration?
Answer:
Exercises on Rectilinear Motion with constant
acceleration

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. A swan on a lake gets airborne by flapping its wings and running on top of the
water. (a) If the swan must reach a velocity of 6.00 m/s to take off and it
accelerates from rest at an average rate of 0.350 m/s2, how far will it travel
before becoming airborne? (b) How long does this take?

Solution: (Remember: draw, identify, set up, execute and evaluate)

2. Blood is accelerated from rest to 30.0 cm/s at a distance of 1.80 cm by the left
ventricle of the heart. How long does the acceleration take?

Solution:
3. a) A light-rail commuter train accelerates at a rate of 1.35 m/s2. How long does it
take to reach its top speed of 80.0 km/h, starting from rest? (b) The same train
ordinarily decelerates at a rate of 1.65 m/s2. How long does it take to come to a
stop from its top speed? (c) In emergencies the train can decelerate more
rapidly, coming to rest from 80.0 km/h in 8.30 s. What is its emergency
deceleration in m/s2?

Solution:

4. (a) A world record was set for the men’s 100-m dash in the 2008 Olympic Games
in Beijing by Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Bolt “coasted” across the finish line with a
time of 9.69 s. If we assume that Bolt accelerated for 3.00 s to reach his maximum
speed, and maintained that speed for the rest of the race, calculate his
maximum speed and his acceleration. (b) During the same Olympics, Bolt also
set the world record in the 200-m dash with a time of 19.30 s. Using the same
assumptions as for the 100-m dash, what was his maximum speed for this race?

Solution:
 Exercises on Free-falling motion

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. What is the acceleration of a rock thrown straight upward on the way up? At the
top of its flight? On the way down?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. If an object is thrown straight up and air resistance is negligible, then its speed
when it returns to the starting point is the same as when it was released. If air
resistance were not negligible, how would its speed upon return compare with its
initial speed? How would the maximum height to which it rises be affected?
Explain._______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. How many times higher could an astronaut jump on the Moon than on Earth if his
takeoff speed is the same in both locations (gravitational acceleration on the
Moon is about 1/6 of on Earth)?

Answer:

4. Calculate the displacement and velocity at times of (a) 0.500, (b) 1.00, (c) 1.50,
and (d) 2.00 s for a ball thrown straight up with an initial velocity of 15.0 m/s. Take
the point of release to be y = 0 .

Solution:
5. An object is dropped from a height of 75.0 m above ground level. (a) Determine
the distance traveled during the first second. (b) Determine the final velocity at
which the object hits the ground. (c) Determine the distance traveled during the
last second of motion before hitting the ground.

Solution:
 Exercises on Graphical analysis of motion in
one dimension

Name_____________________________ Date____________

1. The figure below shows the position graph for a particle for 6 s. (a) Draw the
corresponding Velocity vs. Time graph. (b) What is the acceleration between 0 s
and 2 s? (c) What happens to the acceleration at exactly 2 s?

Answer:
2. A graph of v(t) is shown for a world-class track sprinter in a 100-m race. (See
figure below). (a) What is his average velocity for the first 4 s? (b) What is his
instantaneous velocity at t = 5 s? (c) What is his average acceleration between 0
and 4 s? (d) What is his time for the race?

Answer: