Equations of Motion

1. A sprinter starts from rest and reaches a speed of 10 m/s after covering a distance of
500cm, assuming that the acceleration is constant, show that it is equal to 10 m/s 2.

2. A cheetah starts from rest and accelerates at 2 m/s2 for 10s. Calculate a) The cheetah’s
final velocity. B) The distance the cheetah covers during this 10s.

3. An Athlete accelerates out of her blocks at 5.0 m/s2. A) How long does it take her to
run the first 10m? B) What is her velocity at this point

4. A bicycle’s brakes can produce a deceleration of 2.5 m/s2. How far will the bicycle
travel before stopping, if it is moving at 10 m/s when the brakes are applied?

Note. In class we have started to consider the motion objects falling under gravity. The acceleration due to gravity has
been given as 9.81 m/s2, (At GCSE you probably used 10). For planet Earth this a fixed constant, (ignoring local
fluctuations) which is given in data books. However this assumes a pretend abstract world where either objects fall in
vacuums or the objects are considering to be “point masses”. In either case air resistance is ignored to stop the sums
becoming too hard. In the question which follows the acceleration is less than the expected value for gravity. Before
starting this question, discuss why for a hawk in the real world this might be the case. Hint: For the calculation just
use the supplied value of 9 m/s2

5. A hawk is hovering above a field at a height of 50m. It sees a mouse directly below it
and dives vertically with an acceleration of 9 m/s2. A) At what speed will it be
travelling just before it reaches the ground? B) How long does it take to reach the
ground?