How do you solve a math word problem dealing with velocity?

Question

I'm horrible at word problems. Please help me by explaining this: What is the formula, How can we plug it in (what goes where) and breaking it down for this problem and coming up with an answer: If Shua is on top of a 10ft? roof top, and she drops her tremendous brain on the floor- The time it took to hit the floor was ? 6 seconds. That's pretty basic, but even I don't know if these math #s are actually right because I'm just throwing out random #s. If you have a real velocity problem, please SHARE how you solved it!

Answer 1

the equation for velocity is V=d/t, where v is velocity, d is distance, and t is time. so the velocity in the example you gave would be V=10ft/6seconds=(5/3)feet/second. you can then convert to whatever units you need such as (5/3)feet/second*(60seconds/1minute)=100feet/minute.

Answer 2

Well, all you need to know is that velocity is displacement divided by time. If you are talking about speed then, it's distance divided by time. displacement is just the different between final and initial position. Sometimes distance equals displacement, like in your question, but realize displacent can be negative or positive.

for your question the speed would be 10ft/6seconds. The velocity could be positive or negative depending on what you took your position on the roof top to be. You could say that at the roof top, my position is 0 and and when it hits the floor, it's 10, in this case that would be a positive velocity, or you could say at the roof top, your position is 10 and on the floor is 0. There are also some formulae for velocity (kinematics), that if you have all the necessary information, you can get the velocity.

Answer 3

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RE:
How do you solve a math word problem dealing with velocity?
I'm horrible at word problems. Please help me by explaining this: What is the formula, How can we plug it in (what goes where) and breaking it down for this problem and coming up with an answer: If Shua is on top of a 10ft? roof top, and she drops her tremendous brain on the floor- The time it...

Answer 4

distance=1/2 acceleration x time squared
d=1/2at^2

velocity = acceleration x time

v=at^2

how long does it take for Shula to fall 10 feet and what is her velocity when she hits.

acceleration on earth is 32 ft/second/second

d=1/2 a t^2 10= 1/2 (32) t^2
10=16t^2 t^2=10/16=.625 t=sq rt.625 = .25 seconds

velocity= acceleration x time v=32(.25)= 8ft/second
that is about 5.5 miles per hour.

Answer 5

Velocity is measured in distance/time. If she drops her brain and it falls 10 feet in 6 seconds, then the velocity is 10ft/6 seconds. You can simplify that into 5ft/3 sec or 1.667ft/s

To solve these, just make a triangle:
D
V T

When you're looking for one, (distance, velocity, or time) just cover it up. You were looking for velocity, so cover up the V, and you're left with D/T. Distance divided by time. If you're looking for time, cover up T and you're left with D/V, distance divided by velocity. If you're looking for distance, cover up d and you're left with V*T, velocity times time.

Answer 6

I'm only elementary algebra level. My textbook says to set up equation, its a distance = rate x time problem you're describing. You gave distance of 10 feet, and it took 6 seconds to fall. You're trying to solve for rate; in this case, how many feet per second the object was traveling. So its simply 10 feet divided by 6 equals 1.66666.... the object (brain) was falling at a rate of 1.666... feet per second, or one and 2/3 feet per second.

Answer 7

well, lets find out how this comes out, the problem with throwing out random numbers is that the equation here is going to produce a different value for gravity. 10 ft drop/6 seconds thats a long long time for that thing to be in the air.

h - (1/2) * g * t²
10 - (1/2) * g * 36
here in the made up equation, solving for g we get
g = 0.555555555556 ft/sec/sec (feet per second per second)

so I dont know what planet that is on, but its certainly not this one.

the trick to these problems is
height - (1/2) * gravity * time²
normally these problems are solved with the metric system. If you solve in the american standard you need to adjust your g value, metric g = 9.8m/s²
standard g = 32ft/s²

good luck

Answer 8

Well, remember this; if there is no info regarding friction, then friction is IGNORED. So:

v=velocity
t=time
s=distance

then;

v=10ft/6sec
=1.667 ft per second. Pretty darn slow for a brain...

Answer 9

The formula is: s= v1t + 1/2 at2(squared)
where v1 is the initial speed ( in this case it is 0)
t is the time elapsed
a is the acceleration
s is the distance travelled

The equation is rearranged to:
t= the root of 2s/g
Where s is the distance travelled
g is the rate of acceleration objects fall with a constant
acceleration (g) equal to 32ft/sec2(squared) which is equal to
9.8 m/sec2(squared)

Therefore the answer to your question would be: 1.43sec