PHYSICS 6A

Ch.2 – Practice Problems SOLUTIONS

1) A kingfisher is a bird that catches fish by plunging into water from a height
of several meters. If a kingfisher dives from a height of 7.0m with an
average speed of 4.00 m/s, how long does it take for it to reach the water?
t=7/4 seconds

2) You drive 4.00mi at 30.0 mi/h and then another 4.00 mi at 50.0 mi/h. Is
your average speed for the 8.00 mi trip (a) greater than 40.0 mi/h (b) equal
to 40.0 mi/h (c) less than 40.0 mi/h?
Avg speed = 37.5 mph

3) An athlete sprints 50.0 m in 8.00 s, stops, and then walks slowly back to
the starting line in 40.0 s. If the “sprint direction” is taken to be positive,
what is (a) the average sprint velocity, (b) the average walking velocity,
and (c) the average velocity for the complete round trip?
a) 6.25 m/s b) -1.2 m/s c) 0 m/s

4) A train moves in a straight line with an initial velocity of 0.50 m/s. It

accelerates at 2.0 m/s2 for 2.0 seconds, coasts with zero acceleration for
3.0 seconds, and then accelerates at -1.5 m/s2 for 1.0 second. (a) What is
the final velocity of the train? b) What is the average acceleration of the
train? c) Draw a graph of velocity vs. time with time on the horizontal axis.
v (m/s)

4.5
3.0

0.5

2 5 6 t (s)

a) 3.0 m/s b) 0.42 m/s2 c)

Formulas
1) x  x 0  v 0  t  1 a  t 2
2
2) v  v 0  a  t
3) v 2  v 02  2ax  x 0 

clas.ucsb.edu/vincezaccone/
 PHYSICS 6A
Ch.2 – Practice Problems SOLUTIONS

1) A ball is thrown upward with an initial velocity of +8.2 m/s. If the acceleration
of the ball is -9.81m/s2, what is the velocity after (a) 0.50 s, (b) 1.0 second.
a) 3.3 m/s b) -1.6 m/s

2) Draw the Position vs. Time graph, the Velocity vs. Time graph, and the
Acceleration vs. Time Graph of the previous problem.
Position vs. Time Velocity vs. Time Acceleration vs. Time

8.2

-1.6

-9.8

3) A helicopter traveling upwards at 121 m/s drops a package from a height of

500m. To the nearest second, how long does it take to hit the ground?
28 seconds

4) A park ranger driving on a back country road suddenly sees a deer “frozen” in
the headlights. The ranger, who is driving at 11.4m/s, immediately applies the
brakes and slows with an acceleration of 3.80m/s2. (a) If the deer is 20.0 m from
the ranger’s vehicle when the brakes are applied, how close does the ranger
come to hitting the deer? (b) How much time is needed for the ranger’s vehicle to
stop?
a) 2.9m b) 3 s

5) A speeder doing 40mi/h (about 17.9m/s) in a 25 mi/h zone approaches a

parked police car. The instant the speeder passes the police car, the police begin
their pursuit. If the speeder maintains a constant velocity, and the police car
accelerates with a constant acceleration of 4.50 m/s2, (a) how long does it take
for the police car to catch the speeder, b) How far have the two cars traveled in
this time, and c) What is the velocity of the police car when it catches the
speeder?
a) 7.96 s b) 143m c) 35.8 m/s

clas.ucsb.edu/vincezaccone/