Question

calculating average velocity
ben walks 500 meters from his house to the corner store. he then walks back toward his house, but continues 200 meters past his house to talk to a neighbor. it takes ben 17 minutes from the time he leaves his house until he stops to talk to his neighbor. what is ben’s average velocity? round to the nearest tenth.
○ 0.2 m/s
○ 0.5 m/s
○ 0.7 m/s
○ 1.2 m/s

Explanation:

Step1: Determine Displacement

Displacement is the final position - initial position. Initial position is 0 (house). He goes 500m to store, then back 500m to house, then 200m past. So final position is \( 500 - 500 + 200 = 200 \) meters from start (in the direction past the house). So displacement \( d = 200 \) m.

Step2: Convert Time to Seconds

Time is 17 minutes. Since 1 minute = 60 seconds, \( t = 17\times60 = 1020 \) seconds.

Step3: Calculate Average Velocity

Average velocity \( v_{avg}=\frac{\text{displacement}}{\text{time}}=\frac{d}{t} \). Substitute \( d = 200 \) m and \( t = 1020 \) s: \( v_{avg}=\frac{200}{1020}\approx0.2 \) m/s (rounded to nearest tenth).

Answer:

0.2 m/s