Solution

Well we know that the answer to this has to do with the formulas we just derived, so that's a pretty big hint. Don't go on until you've thought about how to apply these formulas.

How do you apply these formulas? We first have to translate this word problem into mathematical problem.

• Identify the relevant pieces of information in the problem. Well most of what was stated was relevant, the only thing that was really irrelevant was the fact that the object that was moving was a camel riding a bike. The answer would of course be the same if it was say a tortoise riding a moped. We can see that the positional and velocity information in the problem affects the final result and is therefore relevant, Same with the time shown on the stop watch.
• Give names to all the relevant variables. Call the position and velocity of the camel at time t, x and v respectively. x measures the position of the camel relative to ``go", so that when x=0, the camel passes go. Also when the camel passes ``go" the stop watch was started. So we identify this point with t=0. Note that the position and velocity at t=0 have been given: and .
• Identify what equations describe the physical situation we are analyzing. We have an object moving with constant acceleration and want to know its position and velocity at a time . We noted above that we also know its initial position and velocity. Well the correct equations to use (well errr.... the only equations to use at this point) are eq. 3.11 and 3.14.

Now we have everything we need to solve this problem. Try to solve it now if you haven't managed so far.

With the values of , a, and t as given we have

and

Note the strategy we used in solving this problem. Even if you found this example to be really easy, you can learn something from the technique that was used to solve it. We divided the problem up into several simpler questions that we could answer immediately. When dealing with more complicated problems, you should keep your cool and try and do the same thing.