Relative acceleration
Classical Mechanics
Level
3
If an object initially at rest accelerates at +2 m/s/s, while another object initially moving at -4 m/s accelerates at +2 m/s/s, what will be the rate of change of the rate of change of the difference in their positions after 10 seconds.
4
2
16
32
8
0
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1 solution
Mathematically, the acceleration of both objects is equal to 2 m/s/s. Since the difference in the position is simply Δ x = x 2 − x 1 , the acceleration difference must equal: Δ a = a 2 − a 1 = 2 − 2 = 0 .