Does Opposite Acceleration Decrease Car Speed?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the concept of opposite acceleration affecting car speed. When a car experiences acceleration that is directed opposite to its motion, it results in negative acceleration, which decreases the car's speed over time. The analogy of applying brakes with increasing force illustrates this principle effectively. The key takeaway is that as long as the acceleration remains directed opposite to the car's motion, the speed will continue to decrease.

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This discussion is beneficial for physics students, automotive engineers, and anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of vehicle motion and acceleration effects.

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:
 
The book claims the answer is that all the magnitudes are the same because "the gravitational force on the penguin is the same". I'm having trouble understanding this. I thought the buoyant force was equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. Weight depends on mass which depends on density. Therefore, due to the differing densities the buoyant force will be different in each case? Is this incorrect?

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