Question

The figure below represents part of the performance data of a car owned by a proud physics student. (The horizontal axis is marked in increments of 1 s and the vertical axis is marked in increments of 10 m/s.)
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(a) Calculate the total distance traveled by computing the area under the red-brown graph line.

I've been trying to use the trapezoidal method to no avail on the area under the object, and I haven't learned how to integrate either in calculus, so can anyone help me out with how to actually go about solving this problem?

Answer 1

make a square around the entire graph, including the y-axis up to its max, same with x-axis. Find that area by multiplying the max values on each axis. write it down. now find where the graph stops accelerating, should make a triangle. find the area of the triangle by A=.5*L*W, and multiply by 2 for both sides. subtract that from the total area you found at the beginning and that should it.