A football player carrying the ball runs straight ahead at the line of scrimmage and directly into a wall of defensive linemen. The ball carrier has an initial speed of 7.68 m/s and is stopped in a time interval of 0.202 s. Find the magnitude and direction of his average acceleration.

Question

Physics

Jeffrey Reid

21 March, 01:07

A football player carrying the ball runs straight ahead at the line of scrimmage and directly into a wall of defensive linemen. The ball carrier has an initial speed of 7.68 m/s and is stopped in a time interval of 0.202 s. Find the magnitude and direction of his average acceleration.

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Katie Livingston · Answer 1

For this problem, we use the derived equations for rectilinear motion at constant acceleration. The equation is:

a = (v - v₀) / t

where

v and v₀ is the final and initial velocities, respectively

t is time

a is acceleration

Since it eventually comes to a stop, v=0. Substituting the values,

a = (0 - 7.68 m/s) / 0.202 s

a = - 38.02 m/s²

Hence, the magnitude of the acceleration is - 38.02 m/s². The direction is still aiming along the straight line, but the negative sign signifies that the the ball is decelerating.