Physics Practice Worksheet
name ___________________ period ________
Working Simple Problems Involving Motion
Recall kinematics involves describing motion. Before plunging into more challenging kinematics problems,
we wish to pause and consider simpler problems. Before we are confronted with a set of four kinematics
equations that involves five variables (such as what appears in the box on page 27 of your text), we consider
(below) three simpler equations with but three variables. And before we consider more complicated
approaches to physics problem solving (such as what appears on page 28 of your text), let's consider a simple
four step method. While the problems themselves are on the back page of this sheet, what follows on this
side sets the stage for our systematic approach to solving them. The goal here is not to simply get the
answers--nearly everyone can do that. Rather it is to help you 1) appreciate how the problem is read,
understood, translated into mathematical language, and solved using symbols, equations, and a systematic
method, and 2) better make the transition to tackling more complicated problems.
IV. The Simple Problems Involving Motion (Show each step in the space provided.)
#1. If your instructor and his wife drive their Toyota Prius 540 miles between their city home in Fort Worth
and their mountain home in New Mexico in nine hours, what is their average speed?
step 1 what you want:
step 2 what you have:
step 3 the needed equation:
step 4 plugging into the equation:
#2. Suppose they set the cruise control on 65 miles per hour and drive for 5 hours before stopping for gas.
How far do they travel?
step 1 what you want:
step 2 what you have:
step 3 the needed equation:
step 4 plugging into the equation:
#3. On June 25, 1997 at 1 PM, your instructor collected the last final exam in a course he was teaching at
Arkansas Tech University (ATU), and set out for Skidmore College in upstate New York. He drove
1625 miles, averaging 65 miles per hour in his Ford Festiva, arriving in the late afternoon of June 26.
How much time did it take him?
step 1 what you want:
step 2 what you have:
step 3 the needed equation:
step 4 plugging into the equation:
4.
In April, 1999, one Friday afternoon somewhere north of Jessievjlle on Hwy 7, ASMS student Jessica
Crabill claims that she saw a Ford Festiva with an old ATU faculty sticker on.it pass her at excessive
speed (She claims the speed was 80 mi/hr--which is a matter of some dispute--and that driver was your
instructor) Accepting the claim, if 1/8 min=1/480 hr was needed to pass, find the passing distance.
step 1 what you want:
step 2 what you have:
step 3 the needed equation:
step 4 plugging into the equation:
5.
Your instructor (when he was young) once drove 1700 miles from NW Arkansas to Los Angeles in 34
hours in his old VW. What was his average speed?
step 1 what you want:
step 2 what you have:
step 3 the needed equation:
Please drive safely! Speed kills!
step 4 plugging into the equation: