Acceleration
(Vf – Vi)
A=
t
A = Acceleration (m/s2)
Vf = final velocity (m/s)
Vi = initial velocity (m/s)
t = time (s)
How to use:
Cover the variable you
need to find. The
remaining variables will
direct you how to solve. Be
sure to label your units.
Change
in Speed
(Vf-Vi)
÷
÷
Acceleration
x
Time
Name ___________________Speed and Acceleration Practice
(Underlined words indicate a need to change the unit)
1. Olivia drives 35 mph for 7.2 hours. How far does she get?
2. Connor skips 350m down the road at a rate of 2.7 m/s. How long
does it take?
3. It takes Eliza a total of 17.5 hours to read one entire series of
books. She reads at an average speed of 0.05 pages per second.
How many pages was the entire series?
4. Jeremy drives 27 mph for 2 miles. He then travels 89 mph for 1
minute. What was Jeremy’s average speed?
5. Carolina is running at a rate of 5 m/s. Mr. Smith comes out and
tells her to get fired up. She is scared. Over a period of 5 seconds,
she increases her speed to a rate of 17.2 m/s. What is her rate of
acceleration?
6. Sydney is accelerating at a rate of -2.7m/s 2. She comes to a
complete stop after 83.2 seconds. How fast was she going?
7. Jessica and Alexa are racing. Jessica can run 100 meters in 7.6
seconds. Alexa can run 30 meters in 2.6 seconds. Who would win a
400m dash, and by how much time?
8. Seth is accelerating at a rate of -2.8 m/s 2. How long would it take
him to go from 87 m/s to 12 m/s?
9. Luke drives 35 mph for 5 miles. He then drives 80 mph for 30
seconds (0.0083 hours). What is his average speed?
10. Michael accelerates at a rate of -0.005 m/s2 . How long does it
take him to come to a complete stop if his starting speed is 5 m/s?
Answer Key: Speed and Acceleration Practice
1. 252 miles
2. 129.6 s
3. 3,150 pages
4. 38.4 mph
5. 2.44 m/s2
6. 225 m/s
7. Jessica, by 4.3 seconds
8. 26.8 s
9. 38.2 mph
10. 1,000 s
Name _________________________________
Review Problems: Speed, time, distance and acceleration
1. Talia loves to jump rope. She jumps 879 times in 403 seconds. At what speed is she
jumping?
2. Jessica loves to read. She reads at a speed of 3 pages per minute. How many
pages can she read in 2 hours? (First convert 2 hours into minutes)
3. Lincoln can run at a speed of 3 m/s. How long would it take him to run 200 meters?
4. Alyssa does jumping jacks in her spare time. She does 300 jumping jacks in 2.5
minutes. How many jacks does she do per minute?
5. McKenzie is racing Jaden around the track (400 m). McKenzie runs 4.5 m/s and
Jaden runs 4.25 m/s. By how many seconds does McKenzie win?
6. Miranda is riding her bicycle. She goes from 5 m/s to 20 m/s over a period of 30
seconds. At what rate is her acceleration?
7. Abbie was running at a rate of 5 m/s and over a period of 5 seconds slowed down to
3 m/s. What is her rate of acceleration?
8. Josh is doing sit-ups at a speed of 5 sit-ups per 7 seconds. (First find this speed).
Three minutes (180 seconds) later, he is doing sit-ups at a rate of 7 sit-ups per 8
seconds (Second find this speed). What is Josh’s acceleration?
9. What does a horizontal line indicate on a DISTANCE/TIME graph?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
10. What does a horizontal line indicate on a SPEED/TIME graph?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
11. Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of ___________________, which
is an object’s ____________________ and _________________________.
List 3 ways an object can undergo acceleration.
a. ____________________________________
b. ____________________________________
c. ____________________________________
12. Why would you need to know the velocity of a hurricane, rather than its speed?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
13. Make up a story in which a person travels a distance of 10 meters but is only
displaced 2 meters.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Answer Key
1. 2.18 jumps/second
2. 360 pages
3. 66.67 seconds
4. 120 jumping jacks
5. 5.3 seconds
6. 0.5 m/s^2
7. -0.4 m/s^2
8. 0.0009167 sit ups/s^2
9. Staying still
10. Constant speed/ no acceleration
11. Velocity, speed, direction
Speeding up, slowing down, changing direction
12. Because you need to know its direction in addition to its
speed
13. (answers will vary) example: a person walks forward 6
meters then backwards 4 meters