One of the most challenging parts of Physics is the story problems! These problems force you to take a paragraph of written information and convert it into a math problem, with all the information properly inserted into the appropriate formula. So here is a problem to give you some practice at developing that very important skill. It is a fairly simple problem. The challenge is to get it into a simple form.
To make this challenge a bit more appealing, I am offering a full size candy bar to anyone who properly sets up the problem and comes out with the right answer. I want you to show all your work.
You have until next Wednesday to answer the problem for the candy bar. You can hand me your worked out solution in class on either Monday or Wednesday. Next Friday I will post a worked out solution. Good luck!
PROBLEM
A Navy battleship embarks from the Naval station in Mayport on its way to Afghanistan to shore up defenses there. Assume that its destination is 5000 kilometers away. Assume that the ship left harbor at 9am on August 25, 2011, and arrived at its destination this morning, September 2, 2011 at 9am. What was the ships average velocity during the voyage? Give your answer in miles/hour.
There are 9 days from august 25 to sept 2. Which is a total of 216 hours. 5,000 km to miles is 3106.86 miles. You would take 3106.8 miles/216 hours which is 14.38 miles/hour.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm assuming you are not taking in to account that is physically impossible to have a naval ship to reach the shores of Afghanistan, and to accurately calculate time you must take in account the time zone change that leaving at 0900 on August 25th from Mayport means it is 1730 in Afghanistan. The time span of the travel between Mayport to Afghanistan is 7days 15hrs and 30mins, or 183.5hrs. 5,000km is 3,107miles. Now that all the parts are converted and calculated its an easy plug in chug.. 3,107miles/183.5hrs= 17.27m/hr is the average velocity traveled.
ReplyDeleteHeriberto I think you'll find that there are actually only 8 24-hour periods between 9am on Aug 25 and 9am on Sept 2, giving you a total of 192 hours. Your other calculations are superb. Great job!
ReplyDeleteElamon, haha you are right! It IS physically impossible to get to Afghanistan because it is surrounded on all sides by other countries! Thank you for the lesson in geography. You made intelligent assumptions and I can find no error in your calculations. Excellent job. What is your favorite type of candy bar?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite candy bar is snickers. thank you! I never win anything. :)
ReplyDelete