Average Speed, Average Acceleration, and Top Speed of High End Cars
Go to http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=2572&page_number=17
Watch the videos of the various cars. Record the following data:
Car Name
Time to 1 Mile (s)
Instantaneous
speed at 1
mile
Average Speed
(mi/s)
Average
Speed (mi/hr)
Average
Acceleration
(mi/hr/s)
Honda Civic
69.23
113
.014
52
1.63
1. What cars have the greatest instantaneous speed? Graph this.
2. What cars have the greatest average speed? Graph this.
3. What cars have the greatest acceleration? Graph this.
4. Which car would have won the race? How do you know?
See the following datasheets for more data:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/0509_mile_speedometer.pdf
http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/0509_mile_spread_carts.pdf
Winning Car vs. an F-18 Jet
Champ Car
Position (mi)
Time
F-18
Instantaneous
Velocity
(mi/hr)
Time
Instantaneous
Velocity
(mi/hr)
¼
9.9
161.4
11.9
154.2
½
15
188.3
16.7
218.0
¾
19.7
196.2
20.4
267.1
1
24.2
203.3
23.6
308.3
1. The above table shows the data for the winning car vs. the F-18.
2. Plot their positions in a displacement over time graph.
a. Which was ahead at each of the four positions?
b. Which one won in the end?
3. Plot their instantaneous velocity over time. Explain the graph.
4. Calculate their average acceleration.
a. From 0- ¼ mile
b. From ¼ to ½ mile.
c. From ½ to ¾ mile.
d. From ¾ to 1 mile.
e. Which had the greatest acceleration? Graph this.