A particle is moving with a velocity of 5m/s toward east after10sec its velocity changes to 5m/s toward north then find acceleration?
Answers
I assume you mean the acceleration during the period that it alters direction, as that’s not exactly what this question says. With the information given, we can only derive the average rate of acceleration. However, it’s fairly straight forward. The average acceleration is simply the change in velocity divided by the time. Velocity is a vector, so needs direction, and if we adopt the convention that the E-W direction is on the x axis and S-N the y axis (with the displacement increasing in each direction), then we can see that the velocity goes from 5x+0y m/s to 0x+5y m/s in 10 seconds. So, the difference is (0x+5y)−(5x+0y) or −5x+5y m/s. Divide that by 10 seconds, and the average acceleration is −0.5x+0.5y m/s2
If you prefer, that’s an average rate of acceleration of 0.5 m/s2in the northerly direction and 0.5 m/s2 in the westerly direction.
If you prefer it as a magnitude and direction, then it’s 0.52+(−0.5)2−−−−−−−−−−−√=0.5−−−√ m/s2 or approximately 0.71 m/s2 in a north-westerly direction.
As we are given no clue as to how this change of direction is achieved (is it a constant rate of acceleration in each direction, is it on a 90 degree segment of a circular path etc.) then you really can’t go any further.