## cheska_P one year ago I'm a visual learning, can some one please work this out so I can see how you get the answer? Physics exam in two days! The velocity v(t) of a particle as a function of time is given by v(t) = (2.3 m/s) + (4.1 m/s2)t - (6.2 m/s3)t2. What is the average acceleration of the particle between t = 1.0 s and t = 2.0 s (up to two significant figures) ?

1. anonymous

$Average acceleration=\frac{ Final velocity-initial velocity }{ time 2-time1 }$

2. cheska_P

The problem I'm having is that I don't know what to do with that long particle function. I tried differentiating it but I think I'm doing it wrong

3. anonymous

Just plug in the first time period to get your initial velocity.

4. anonymous

$2.3+4.1t-6.2t^2$ You can shorten it like this.

5. cheska_P

I figured it out! Thank you. I do have another question though, why is it that the units (m/s, m/s^2, m/s^3) don't matter?

6. anonymous

It does matter. Better to get it out of the way to get initial and final velocity.

7. anonymous

Are you talking about the final answer? It should be in m/s^2 which is $m/s^2$

8. cheska_P

No I was referring to the particle function, you really helped me understand thank you!

9. anonymous

It actually does

10. anonymous

$m/s+\frac{ m \times s }{ s^2 }+\frac{ m \times s^2 }{ s^3 }=m/s+m/s+m/s$

11. anonymous

Time is in seconds.