Ashley, Abhi, Rachel 8-1

Acceleration Word Problem

1. Scenario with citations

Jim-Bob and Sally go to the Sharon Carnival at 5 pm.5 They want to go on a cool
new ride called the Gravitron. They wait in line for 47 minutes5. They finally get into the
ride at 5:47 PM. When they get in, Jim-Bob realizes that he forgot to give his phone to the
Ride Operator but he can’t do anything since the ride has begun 3 to spin. Once the ride
picks up speed the phone2 travels 11 feet4 and takes 3 seconds to smash into the wall of
the ride and shatter. After 1.5 minutes, the ride reaches its maximum speed of 24
revolutions per minute(rpm). The ride continues to spin at its maximum speed for 30
seconds and then it it starts to slow down, or decelerates1 until it stops. Jim-Bob and
Sally have just experienced the best 3 minutes and 45 seconds of their lives, but Jim-Bob
is very mad because he no longer has a working phone.

2. Scenario w/o Citations:

Jim-Bob and Sally go to the Sharon Carnival at 5 pm. They want to go on a cool
new ride called the Gravitron. They wait in line for 47 minutes. They finally get into the
ride at 5:47 PM. When they get in, Jim-Bob realizes that he forgot to give his phone to the
Ride Operator but he can’t do anything since the ride has begun to spin. He grasps his
phone as tight as possible but it is not of use. Once the ride picks up speed the phone
travels 11 feet and takes 3 seconds to smash into the wall of the ride and shatter. After
1.5 minutes, the ride reaches its maximum speed of 24 revolutions per minute(rpm). The
ride continues to spin at its maximum speed for 30 seconds and then it starts to slow
down, or decelerates until it stops. Jim-Bob and Sally have just experienced the best 3
minutes and 45 seconds of their lives, but Jim-Bob is very mad because he no longer has
a working phone.

3. Questions for the Readers:

1. What is another term for negative acceleration and provide an example in the
article provided.
2. Which of the two things in the article provided has a greater rate of acceleration
as compared to the other of the two things? Provide evidence to support your
answer.
3. What term and/or phrase did the writer use in the article to imply that one of the
two things is at rest, as in its not moving?
4. What two pieces of information did the writer include in the article that are
irrelevant and/or misleading to the reader, as in they are not useful in
calculating either speed or acceleration?
Ashley, Abhi, Rachel 8-1

4. Image to Accompany Text in Newspaper Article:

http://fauxcountrynews.com/fair-goers-nervous-about-riding-gravitron-with-
dude-who-just-ate-an-entire-elephant-ear/

5. Screenshot of the Newspaper Article:

Ashley, Abhi, Rachel 8-1

6. Answer Key for the Questions for the Readers:

1. What is another term for negative acceleration and provide an example in the
article provided.
Another term for negative acceleration is deceleration. You know this because it
says in the article “slow down, or decelerates “.
2. Which of the two things in the article provided has a greater rate of acceleration as
compared to the other of the two things? Provide evidence to support your answer.
The acceleration of the Gravitron is greater because it has an acceleration of 16
revolutions/per minute2 while the phone had an acceleration of 2.33 ft/second2 .

Gravitron - 24 rpm - 0 rpm/1.5 min= 16 rpm2 .

Phone - 11ft/3s
=3.67ft/s
FV= 3.67ft/s

3.67ft/s - 0ft/s
= 3.67ft/s / 3s
= 1.22ft/s2

3. What term and/or phrase did the writer use in the article to imply that one of the
two things is at rest, as in its not moving.
They said that the ride begins to spin meaning it wasn’t moving before. The same
thing goes for the Phone, they were in their pockets but then they flew out meaning
the phone weren’t moving themselves.

4. What two pieces of information did the writer include in the article that are
irrelevant and/or misleading to the reader, as in they are not useful in calculating
either speed or acceleration?
The two pieces of information was that they came to the carnival at 5 o'clock p.m.
and that they got into the Gravitron 47 minutes after coming to the carnival.