Equations of motion.

1. A car accelerates uniformly from 13.0 ms-1 to 31.0 ms-1 while entering a
section of highway 2000, covering a distance of 220 m.
a) Calculate the acceleration of the car.
b) Calculate the time taken for the car to accelerate.
Ans. a) 1.8ms-2 b) 10 s

2. Calculate the acceleration needed by a car which has a velocity of

10m/s. The car’s velocity increases to 15m/s in 80m?

Ans. 0.78m/s2

3. A trolley runs down a track, from rest, before passing through a computer
timer, displaying its speed as 2.77 ms-1. The distanced travelled by the
trolley during this time was 1.20 m
a) Calculate the acceleration of the trolley
b) Calculate the time taken for the trolley to travel a distance of 1.20m
Ans. a) 3.20 ms-2 b) 0.866 s

4. A vehicle accelerates uniformly along a straight road, increasing its speed

from 4.0 ms-1 to 30.0 ms-1 in 13 s. Calculate:
a) Its acceleration,
b) The distance it moves in this time.

Ans. a= 2ms-2 b = 221m

5. A skateboarder starts from rest at the top of a ramp and accelerates down it.
The ramp is 25 m long and the skateboarder has a velocity of 12.2 m s –1 at the
bottom of the ramp.
Calculate the acceleration of the skateboarder on the ramp.

Ans. 2.98 m s–2

6. A train started from a station and accelerated at 0.5 m s−2 to reach its top speed
of 50 m s−1 and maintained this speed for 90 minutes.
As the train approached the next station the driver applied the brakes
uniformly to bring the train to a stop in a distance of 500 m.
a) Calculate how long it took the train to reach its top speed.
b) Calculate the acceleration experienced by the train when the brakes were
applied

Ans. a) 100 s b) -2.5 ms-2

7. If a ball is dropped from rest and falls 8m to the ground, what is the speed just
before it hits the ground? Take acceleration due to gravity to be 9.8 ms–2).

Ans. 12.5 m s-1

8. Determine the time taken for the ball to fall in question 7

Ans 1.28 S

Ans a) 2.5s b) 30.6 m

Homework
An arrow is shot vertically upwards from a pit 12m deep (below the ground) at
33m/s. The arrow reaches maximum height after 7 seconds. What is the final
height of the arrow?
Ans. 43.5 m