Chapter 2 - Motion in One Dimension

Problem 6
Question
The position of an object moving in a straight line is given by x = At+Bt2 +Ct3 ,
where A = 3.0 m/s, B = −4.0 m/s2 , and C = 1.0 m/s3 . (a) What is the position
of the object at t = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 s? (b) What is the object displacement
between t = 0 and t = 2 s? Between t = 0 and t = 4 s? (c) What is the average
velocity for the time interval from t = 2 to t = 4 s? From t = 0 to t = 3 s?

Answer
For (a), we simply plug in our values:

x(0) = 0 = 0
x(1) = A + B + C = 0
x(2) = 2A + 4B + 8C = −2
x(3) = 3A + 9B + 27C = 0
x(4) = 4A + 16B + 64C = 12.

(b) The displacements can be found by simply finding the difference between
the values above: x(2) − x(0) = −2, and x(4) − x(0) = 12.
(c) The average velocity is found by dividing the displacement by the time:
v2,4 = x(4) − x(2)/(4 − 2) = 14/2 = 7 m/s; v0,3 = x(3) − x(0)/(3 − 0) = 0/3 = 0
m/s.