Marathon runners go fast
Classical Mechanics
Level
1
The world record for the marathon is 2:03:38, set by Patrick Makau. What is the average speed of Makau in m/s over the course of the marathon?
Details and assumptions
- A marathon is 42.195 km long.
The answer is 5.69.
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1 solution
The average speed is the total distance divided by the time. Makau took 7418 seconds to run the marathon and so the total speed is 4 2 1 9 5 / 7 4 1 8 = 5 . 6 9 m/s .