Question

What was the acceleration of a runner that ran a distance of 200 meters in 17 seconds?

Answer 1

Given:

The distance is,

$s=200\text{ m}$

The time is,

$t=17\text{ s}$

To find:

The acceleration

Explanation:

We know when an object moves with an initial speed of zero, the distance is,

$s=\frac{1}{2}at^2$

Here, 'a' is the acceleration of the object.

Substituting the values we get,

$\begin{gathered} 200=\frac{1}{2}\times a\times17^2 \\ a=\frac{200\times2}{17^2} \\ a=\frac{400}{289} \\ a=1.38\text{ m/s}^2 \end{gathered}$

Hence, the acceleration is,

$a=1.38\text{ m/s}^2$