Some 1D kinematics problems:

Do either problem 1 or problem 2, then move on to the other two.

1. Indianapolis race cars make a rolling start. At the beginning of the race they are moving at 120 mph and they accelerate to 250 mph in 4.0 seconds.

(a) What is the acceleration of the cars?

(b) How far do they travel in this acceleration phase?

Objects falling near earth with no forces acting except gravity have a downwards acceleration of 9.8 m/s².

2. A ball is thrown upwards at 15 m/s toward a platform located 2.0 m above the point where you release the ball.

(a) Find the time taken to reach the platform.

(b) Find the velocity when the ball reaches the platform.

3. You notice a falcon diving past the Kodak office building. It goes down 3 stories in 1.5 seconds, and at the end has a downwards velocity of 18 m/s.

(a) What is the acceleration of the bird?

(b) What was the initial speed of the bird?

4. Your coop job is with a research group studying ozone depletion. Your group will launch a rocket that has a mass spectrometer in its nose cone. You are assigned the task of determining the acceleration of the rocket so that the equipment can be designed to survive. The rocket you will have has a burn time of 30 seconds, and can be assumed to produce constant acceleration. After the fuel is exhausted the rocket will enter free-fall. You are told that the total time of flight of the rocket must be 5.0 minutes. What is the acceleration of the rocket when the engine is on, and what is the maximum altitude of the rocket? BONUS Is this problem realistic? Where is the ozone layer anyway?