Winter 2001

A student wrote:

There is a question on p. 31 of our text, #21. It says that there is a particle moving along the x axis. It asks you to sketch a graph that is a possible description of position as a function of time for the following situations:

a) velocity is zero and acceleration is negative
b) velocity is zero and acceleration is positive

Can you describe situations where these conditions would occur?

Prof. Seidler responds:

Remember that velocity is the first derivative of position, and acceleration is the second derivative. So, you want to make a graph of x(t) which has a local maximum (for part a) and alternatively a local minimum (for part b).

An example of a physical situation for part (a) would be the moment when a ball that you have tossed upward reaches its maximum height. At that moment, the velocity if zero but the acceleration is still negative (-9.8m/s2). An example of a physical situation for part (b) would be the moment of impact when you bounce a hard ball (like a billiard ball) off of the floor. At that moment the velocity is zero, but the net acceleration is positive.