Question

beverly and carl are in a race. their graphs show the data.
which best describes the race?
\bigcirc even though for a majority of the race they accelerated at the same rate, carl won because his initial acceleration was greater than beverly’s.
\bigcirc even though for a majority of the race they accelerated at the same rate, beverly won because her initial acceleration was greater than carl’s.
\bigcirc beverly accelerated at a greater rate for the entire race.
\bigcirc carl accelerated at a greater rate for the entire race.

Explanation:

• In a velocity - time graph, the slope of the graph represents acceleration.
• For the first part of the race (up to \(t = 10\) seconds), Beverly's slope (acceleration) is greater than Carl's.
• For the majority of the race (after \(t=10\) seconds), the slopes (accelerations) of Beverly and Carl's graphs are the same (parallel lines).
• At the end of the race (at the same final time), Beverly has a higher velocity than Carl.

Answer:

Even though for a majority of the race they accelerated at the same rate, Beverly won because her initial acceleration was greater than Carl's.