KINEMATICS SAMPLE PROBLEMS

1. Three cars are on a straight road. A blue car has a constant velocity of 20m/s west; a
green car remains at rest; and a red car has a constant velocity of 10m/s east. At t=0, the
blue and green cars are side-by-side, 20m east of the red car.

a. Plot the x-t graphs for each car in one graph.

x-t graph
80

60

40

20

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
-20

-40

-60

-80

2. A car travelling at constant velocity, passes a stationary motorcycle at a traffic light. As

the car overtakes the motorcycle accelerates uniformly from rest for 10s. the following x-
t graph represents the motions of both vehicles from the traffic light onwards.

375
300

0 5 X 10 15
a. Use the graph to find the constant velocity of the car.

b. Use the information of the graph to find the magnitude of the acceleration of the
motorcycle.

c. Calculate how long (s) it will take the motorcycle to catch up with the car.

d. How far behind the motorcycle will the car be after 15s?
3. A bus on a straight road starts from rest at a bus stop and accelerates at 2m/s² until it
reaches a speed of 20m/s. Then the bus travels for 20s at a constant speed in the same
direction until the driver applies the breaks, stopping the bus in a uniform manner in 5s.

a. Plot the v-t graph.

b. What is the acceleration of the bus at t=5s? t=20s? t=32s?

c. How long does it take to travel from the first bus stop to the second stop?

d. What is the average velocity of the bus during the trip?

4. A gazelle is running in a straight line (the x-axis). The graph in figure 2.67 shows this
animal’s velocity as a function of time. During the first 12.0s. find:

a. Total distance moved.

b. Displacement of the gazelle.

c. Sketch the x-t graph showing its acceleration as a function of time for the first 12.0s.
5. (a). If a flea can jump straight up to a height of 0.440m, what is its initial speed as it
leaves the ground? (b). How long is it in the air?

6. A small rock is thrown vertically upward with a speed of 18.0m/s from the edge of the
roof of a 30.0m building. The rock doesn’t hit the building on its way back down and
lands in the street below. Air resistance can be neglected.

a. What is the speed of the rock just before it hits the street?

b. How much time elapses from when the rock is thrown until it hits the street?
7. A tennis ball on Mars, where the acceleration due to gravity is 0.379g and air resistance is
negligible, is hit directly upward and returns to the same level 8.5s later.

a. How high above its original point did the ball go?

b. How fast was it moving just after being hit?

8. To approximate the height of the water well, Martha and John dropped a heavy rock into
the well. 8 seconds after the rock is dropped, they hear a splash caused by the impact of
the rock on the water. What is the height of the well? (speed of the sound in air is
340m/s).

9. A rock is thrown straight up and reached a height of 10m. (a) How long was the rock in
the air? (b) What is the initial velocity if the rock?
10. A car accelerates from rest at 1.0m/s for 20.0s along a straight road. It then moves at a
constant speed for half an hour. It then decelerates uniformly to a stop in 30s. Find the
total distance covered by the car.

11. An indestructible bullet is fired straight through a board that is 10.0cm thick. The bullet
strikes the board with a speed of 420m/s and emerges with a speed of 280m/s. Assume
constant acceleration.
a. What is the acceleration of the bullet as it passes through the board?

b. What is the total time that the bullet is in contact with the board?

c. What thickness of board would it take to stop the bullet?

 12. On planet X, you drop a 25-kg stone from rest and measure its speed at various times.
Then you use the data you obtained to construct a graph of its speed v as a function of
time t. From the information in the graph, answer the following questions:

Y-Values
40

30

20

10

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

a. What is g on the planet X?

b. An astronaut drops a piece of equipment from rest out of the landing module, 3.5m above
the surface of planet X. how long will it take for this equipment to reach the ground, and
how fast will it be moving when it gets there?

c. How fast would an astronaut have to project an object straight upward to reach a height
of 18.0m above the release point, and how long would it take to reach that height?
More Practice Problems (free falling objects)

1. A stone is dropped from the top of a 100m tall building. Assuming no air resistance,
calculate the time it takes for the stone to reach the ground. What is the velocity of the
stone just before it hits the ground?

2. During a tornado in 2008, the Peachtree Plaza Westin Hotel in Downtown Alaska
suffered damage. Suppose a piece if glass dropped near the top of the hotel is falling
215m. (a) Ignoring air resistance, how long would it take for the piece of glass to hit the
ground? (b) Ignoring air resistance, what will be the velocity of the piece of glass be
when it strikes the ground?

3. From rest, a car accelerated at 8m/s² for 10s. (a)What is the position of the car at the end
of 10s? (b) What is the velocity of the car at the end of 10s?
4. A car accelerates uniformly from 0 to 72km/s in 11.5s. (a) What is the acceleration of the
car in m/s? (b) What is the position of the car by the time it reaches the velocity?

5. An object is thrown straight down from the top of a building at a speed of 20m/s. It hits
the ground with a speed of 40m/s. (a) How high is the building? (b) How long was the
object in the air?

6. A train breaks from 40m/s to stop over a distance if 100m. (a) What is the acceleration of
the train? (b) How much time does it take the train to stop?

7. Starting a distance of 20m to the left of the origin at a velocity of 10m/s, an object
accelerates to the right of the origin for 5s at 4m/s². What is the position of the object at
the end of the 5s of acceleration?

8. What is the smallest distance, in meters, needed for an airplane touching the runway with
a velocity of 360km/h and on acceleration of -10m/s² to come to rest?
Section 2.1 Displacement, Time, and Average Velocity
1. A car travels in the x-direction on a straight and level road. For the first 4.00 s of its
motion, the average velocity of the car is vav-x = 6.25 m>s . How far does the car travel
in 4.00 s?

2. In an experiment, a shearwater (a seabird) was taken from its nest, flown 5150 km away,
and released. The bird found its way back to its nest 13.5 days after release. If we place
the origin in the nest and extend the +x-axis bird’s average velocity in m/s to the release
point, what was the (a) for the return flight, and (b) for the whole episode, from leaving
the nest to returning? 165 mi/h2,

3. Trip Home. You normally drive on the freeway between San Diego and Los Angeles at
an average speed of and the trip takes 2 h and 20 min. On a Friday after 105 km/h noon,
however, heavy traffic slows you down and you drive the same distance at an average
speed of only How much longer does the trip take? 70 km/h 143 mi/h2.
4. From Pillar to Post. Starting from a pillar, you run 200 m east (the +x-direction ) at an
average speed of run 280 m west at an average speed of 4.0 m>s 5.0 m>s, and then to a
post. Calculate (a) your average speed from pillar to post and (b) your average velocity
from pillar to post

5. An astronaut has left the International Space Station to test a new space scooter. Her
partner measures the following velocity changes, each taking place in a 10-s interval.
What are the magnitude, the algebraic sign, and the direction of the average acceleration
in each interval? Assume that the positive direction is to the right. (a) At the beginning of
the interval the astronaut is moving toward the right along the x-axis at and at the end of
the interval she is moving toward the right at (b) At the beginning she is moving toward
the left at and at the end she is moving toward the left at (c) At the beginning she is
moving toward the right at and at the end she is moving toward the left at 15.0m/s.
 6. A cat walks in a straight line, which we shall call the x-axis with the positive direction to
the right. As an observant physicist, you make measurements of this cat’s motion and
construct a graph of the feline’s velocity as a function of time (Fig. E2.30). (a) Find the
cat’s velocity at t = 4.0 s t = 7.0 s. (b) What is the cat’s acceleration at t = 3.0 s? At
t=6.0s? At t=7.0s? At (c) What distance does the cat move during the first 4.5s? From t=0
to t = 7.5 s? (d) Sketch clear graphs of the cat’s acceleration and position as functions of
time, assuming that the cat started at the origin.

7. A hot-air balloon is rising vertically with a constant velocity of magnitude 5.00m/s, releases a
sandbag at an instant when the balloon is 40.om above the ground. After it is released, the
sandbag is on free-fall. (a) Compute the position and velocity of the sandbag at 0.250 seconds
and 1.00s after its release. (b) How many seconds after its release will the bag strike the ground?
(c)with what magnitude of velocity does it strike the ground? (d) what is the greatest height
above the ground that the sandbag reaches?
7. Starting from the front door of your ranch house, you walk 60.0 m due east to your
windmill, and then you turn around and slowly walk 40.0 m west to a bench where you
sit and watch the sunrise. It takes you 28.0 s to walk from your house to the wind mill
and then 36.0 s to walk from the windmill to the bench. For the entire trip from your front
door to the bench, what are (a) your average velocity and (b) your average speed?

8. A juggler performs in a room whose ceiling is 3.0m above the level of his hands. He
throws a ball upward so that it reaches the ceiling (without touching it). (a) What is the
initial velocity of the ball? (b) What is the time required for the ball to reach the ceiling?
At the instant when the first ball is at the ceiling, the juggler throws a second ball upward
with two-thirds the initial velocity of the first. (c) How long after the second ball is
thrown do the balls pass each other?
9. A painter is standing on scaffolding that is raised at constant speed. As he travels upward,
he accidentally nudges a paint can off the scaffolding and it falls 15.0 m to the ground.
You are watching, and measure with your stopwatch that it takes 3.25 s for the can to
reach the ground. Ignore air resistance. (a) What is the speed of the can just before it hits
the ground? (b) Another painter is standing on a ledge, with his hands 4.00 m above the
can when it falls off. He has lightning-fast reflexes and if the can passes in front of him,
he can catch it. Does he get the chance?

10. During launches, rockets often discard unneeded parts. A certain rocket starts from rest
on the launch pad and accelerates upward at a steady 3.30 m/s2. When it is 235 m above
the launch pad, it discards a used fuel canister by simply disconnecting it. Once it is
disconnected, the only force acting on the canister is gravity (air resistance can be
ignored). (a) How high is the rocket when the canister hits the launch pad, assuming that
the rocket does not change its acceleration? (b) What total distance did the canister travel
between its release and its crash onto the launch pad?