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sbains3528
Joined: 16 Aug 2010
Posts: 14
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 Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| The passage says that the car accelerates from 14 m s^-1 to 6 m s^-2. Why are they changing units? |
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bzhou2033
Joined: 23 Aug 2010
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| It actually says it is at a velocity of 14 m/s and accelerates at 6m/s^2. |
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mcat_premed3832
Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 412
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| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The passage says that the car accelerates from 14 m s^-1 to 6 m s^-2. |
Actually, the passage does not say that. Though it's true that the wording is a bit contorted, the reality is that you must be prepared for that type of wording in a problem.
The passage talks about a truck and says "its initial velocity of 14 m s^-1" thus 14 m s^-1 is not the acceleration, it is the velocity. Then it says "uniformly at 6 m s^-2" thus this refers to the acceleration.
The likely reason that it created an ambiguity in your mind is because the word "accelerates" preceded velocity: "the truck accelerates from its initial velocity of 14 m s^-1."
Incidentally, had the passage actually referred to the following numbers with different units "from 14 m s^-2 to 6 m s^-2" then it would have used the word "decelerates" and not "accelerates." |
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