Does Opposite Acceleration Decrease Car Speed?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a scenario involving a car's motion and its instantaneous acceleration, which is directed opposite to the car's direction of travel. Participants are exploring how this relationship affects the car's speed and whether the speed is decreasing as a result of the acceleration's direction.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are questioning the implications of negative acceleration on the car's velocity and discussing the nuances of the wording in the original post. There is an exploration of whether the acceleration is consistently opposite to the motion or if it is increasing in that direction.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active, with participants providing insights into the interpretation of acceleration and its effects on velocity. Some guidance has been offered regarding the analogy of braking, but no consensus has been reached on the specific implications for the car's speed.

Contextual Notes

There are indications of ambiguity in the original problem statement, particularly regarding the nature of the acceleration and its relationship to the car's motion. Participants are also reminded of the forum's posting guidelines for homework help.

chrissy9624
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A person is driving a car down a road. The instantaneous acceleration is increasing with time, but is directed opposite the direction of the car's motion. what is the speed of the car? is it decreasing because the acceleration is opposite with the car's motion? Please Help. Thank you
 
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Acceleration is change in velocity over time, so if it is in the opposite direction to the cars motion, then the acceleration would be negative.

If you had a negative acceleration, what would you expect to happen to the velocity as time went on?
 
The statement is a little vague. Is the acceleration directed opposite of the car's motion, or is the increase in the acceleration directed opposite of the car's motion?
 
The instantaneous acceleration in increasing, it's not constantly increasing and it's opposite direction of the car's motion. So I thought that the speed is decreasing since the acceleration is opposite with the car's motion.
 
chrissy9624 said:
A person is driving a car down a road. The instantaneous acceleration is increasing with time, but is directed opposite the direction of the car's motion. what is the speed of the car? is it decreasing because the acceleration is opposite with the car's motion? Please Help. Thank you

That's sound reasoning. Sometimes the hardest part of a problem lies in interpreting the wording :smile:

The situation described is analogous to stepping on the brakes with increasing force (while the car is in motion, of course).

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P.S. chrissy9624, next time please make use of the posting template provided when you start a thread. Homework Help posts need to meet a certain format, content, and effort level. You barely met the last two criteria with the above :smile:
 

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