Maria is undergoing physical therapy for a back injury. Her therapist instructs her to use the power-glide incline. When using the incline, Maria pushes with her legs, raising her torso 30 cm up the incline and then she release to drop back down again. She is instructed to repeat this exercise 30 times.

Question

Maria  is undergoing physical therapy for a back injury. Her therapist instructs her to use the power-glide incline. When using the incline, Maria pushes with her legs, raising her torso 30 cm up the incline and then she release to drop back down again. She is instructed to repeat this exercise 30 times.

a) What is the total distance that Maria moves the glider while exercising?

b) what is the overall displacement of the glider?

My answers:

a) 900 cm

b) 0

Not sure if they r right or not!!!

Thanks!

Damon · Answer

They look right to me. Of course she is not really moving it for the half of the trip that is down so you could make an argument that she is really only moving it up 450 cm and it is moving itself down 450 cm. It is the words "release" and "drop" that cause me to say that. The glider moves 900cm, but Maria really only moved it the up half.