Problem 1CQ A person gets in an elevator on the ground floor and rides it to the top floor of a building. Sketch a velocity-versus-time graph for this motion.
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Textbook Solutions for College Physics
Question
The position graph of Figure P2.5 shows a dog slowly sneaking up on a squirrel, then putting on a burst of speed.
a. For how many seconds does the dog move at the slower speed?
b. Draw the dog’s velocity-versus-time graph. Include a numerical scale on both axes.
Solution
Step 1 of 2
We know that the speed is calculated as the slope of distance time graph:
\(s=\frac{y}{x}\)
(a)
Segmenting the motion into two time intervals:i.e 0s to 8s, and 8s to 10s
From 0s to 8s,
\(\begin{array}{l}
y_{1}=4-6=-2 m \\
x_{1}=8-0=8 s \\
s_{1}=\frac{-2}{8}=-0.25 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}
\end{array}\)
From 8s to 10s:
\(\begin{array}{l}
y_{2}=4-0=-4 m\\
\begin{array}{l}
x_{2}=10-8=2 \mathrm{~s} \\
s_{2}=\frac{-4}{2}=-2 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}
\end{array}
\end{array}\)
\(s_{2}>s 1\) here we will not consider the negative sign as it tells us the direction of movement. We here are concerned about magnitude.
Thus, the dog moves slowly for initial 8s.
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