RFT Motion in a Straight Line – 2.

09

Homework Questions
1. Define relative velocity
Sol: Relative velocity of one body with respect another body/ observer is the velocity with which one
body moves with respect to another.
Relative velocity is the rate of change of relative change of position of one object with respect to
another.
2. When is the relative velocity of two moving objects zero?
Sol: When the two objects are moving with same speed along the same direction (is same velocity), the
relative velocity is zero.
3. Two cars A and B move towards each other with constant velocity v A and vB . The distance between

them decreases by 10 ms1. When they move along the same direction, with the same speed, the

distance between them increases by 5ms1 . What are their velocities?

Sol: vA  vB  10 ms1 1

vA  vB  5ms1  2
From (1) and (2)

vA  7.5ms1, vB  2.5ms1

Ans: 7.5ms1, 2.5ms1

4. One train A 120 m long is moving in a direction with a speed of 20 ms1. Another train B 130 m long is

moving with a speed of 30 ms1 in the opposite direction. The train B crosses the train A in a time

(a) 5 s (b) 36 s (c) 38 s (d) None of these

Sol: Total length of two trains, x  130  120  250 m

Relative velocity of train B w.r.t train A

 30   20   50 ms1

 Time taken by train B to cross train A

x 250
   5s
50 50
Ans: (a)
5. Two cars started simultaneously towards each other from towns A and B which are 480 km apart. It
took first car travelling from A to B 8 hours to cover the distance and the second car travelling from B to
A took 12 hours. Determine when the cars meet after starting and at what distance from town A.
Assume that both the cars travel at constant speed.
480
Sol: Speed of car travelling from town A is v A   60 km h 1
8

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RFT Motion in a Straight Line – 2.09

480
Speed of car travelling from town B is vB   40 km h 1
12
Let the two cars meet after time t hours. In this time, the distance travelled from A is 60t and the
distance travelled from B is 40t . When the cars meet, the total distance traveled  480 km .
 60 t  40 t  480

480
or t   4.8 hours
60  40
The distance from town A at the meeting point
vA  t  60  4.8  288km

Ans: 4.8 hours, 288km

6. Two cars are moving in the same direction with the same of 30 km h 1 . They are separated by a

distance of 5 km. A truck moving in the opposite direction meets these two cars at an interval of
4 minutes. Find the speed of the truck.
Sol: Suppose the truck is moving with a speed of 30 km hr 1 30 km hr 1
Car A Car B
v km h 1 as shown in figure. Apply a velocity of

30 km h 1 on all the vehicles in the direction of motion 5 km v truck

of the truck. The two cars come to rest with a fixed distance of 5 km while the velocity of truck becomes

 v  30 km h 1 . The time t hours taken by the truck to cover a distance of 5 km with a speed of

 v  30 km h 1 is given by;

Distance 5
t 
Velocity v  30

1 5  1 
or   t  4minutes  hours 
15 v  30  15 

v  45 km h 1

Ans: 45 km h 1

7. Two trains are moving in opposite directions. Trains A moves east with a speed of 72 km h 1 and train

B moves west with a speed of 90 km h 1. What is the (i) relative velocity of B w.r.t. A? (ii) the relative

velocity of ground w.r.t. B (iii) the velocity of a dog running on the roof of the train A against its

motion (with a velocity of 54 km h 1 w.r.t to train A) as observed by a man standing on the ground.

Sol: If not mentioned, the speeds are understood to be w.r.t. earth or ground. Therefore, speeds of
trains A and B are w.r.t. earth.

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RFT Motion in a Straight Line – 2.09

72 1000
(i) Speed of train A, v AE  75 km h 1   20 ms1
60  60
90 1000
Speed of train B, vBE  90 km h 1   25ms 1
60  60
Let us choose the positive direction from west to east.

 vAE  20ms1; vBE  25ms1

Relative velocity of B w.r.t. A is given by;

vBA  vBE  vEA  vBE  vAE  25   20

 45ms1 or 45ms1 east to west

(ii) The relative velocity of ground (i.e, each) w.r.t. B is

vEB  vEB  vEB  vEB  vBE  0   25  25ms1

(iii) Velocity of dog w.r.t to train A is

54 1000
vDA  54 km h 1   15ms1
60  60

Since our positive direction is from west to east, vDA  15ms1

Now vDA  vDE  vEA  vDE  vAE

 vDE  vDA  vAE  15  20  5ms1

Ans: 45ms1 east to west, 25ms1,5ms1

8. Two cars A and B are at positions 100 m and 200 m from the origin at t  0. They start simultaneously

with velocities 10 ms1 and 5ms1 respectively. Calculate the time and position at which they will

overtake one another. Assume that they are moving in the same direction.

Sol: xBO  200m ; xAO  100m; vA  10ms1; vB  5ms1

xB  xA   xBO  xAO    vB  vA  t

For the solution of the problem, xB  x A  0

 0   200  100   5  10 t

or 0  100  5t

100
 t  20s
5
x  100  10  20  100  200  300m

Ans: 300 m

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RFT Motion in a Straight Line – 2.09

9. The motion of a particle along X-axis is given by the equation x  20  4t 2 where x is in meters and t in
seconds. Find (i) the displacement of the particle in time interval t1  2s and t2  5s (ii) the average

velocity in the same time interval (iii) the instantaneous velocity at t  2s.

Sol: x  20  4t 2

(i) The position of the particle at t1  2s is x1  20  4  2   36 m

2

The position of the particle at t2  5s is x2  20  4 5  120 m

2

 Displacement of the particle during time interval 2 s to 5 s

 x2  x1  120  36  84m

x x 84 84
(ii) Average velocity  2 1    28ms1
t2  t1 5  2 3

x  20  4t 2
Instantaneous velocity is given by;

v
dx d

dt dt
 
20  4t 2  8t

At t  2s; v  8  2  16 ms1

Ans: 84m, 28 ms1 ,16ms 1

10. A jet aero plane travelling at the speed of 500 km h 1 ejects its products of combustion at the speed of

1500 km h 1 relative to jet plane. What is the speed of the latter w.r.t an observer on the ground?

Sol: Considering the positive direction of x  axis to be the direction in which the jet plane moves, we
have,

vJE  Relative speed of jet plane w.r.t. earth  500 km h 1

vCJ  Relative speed of combination product w.r.t jet  1500 km h 1

 Relative speed of combustion products w.r.t earth is

vCE  vCJ  vJE   1500   1500  1000km h 1

Ans: 1000 km h 1

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