Question

The graph shows the motion of a horse during the first portion of a race.
(25, 25), (20, 20), (15, 15), (10, 10), (5, 5)
Which statement is true about the horse's motion?
A. The horse decreased its velocity during this portion of the race.
B. The horse maintained a constant acceleration during this portion of the race.
C. The horse maintained a constant velocity during this portion of the race.
D. The horse increased its acceleration during this portion of the race.

Answer 1

To analyze the horse’s motion based on the given points: (25, 25), (20, 20), (15, 15), (10, 10), (5, 5), we first interpret what these points represent.

Assuming the points indicate position over time, we can observe the following:

- The first component of the points could represent time, and the second component could represent the position of the horse at that time.

From the points:
- At time = 25, position = 25
- At time = 20, position = 20
- At time = 15, position = 15
- At time = 10, position = 10
- At time = 5, position = 5

Looking at these points, we see that as time decreases, the position also decreases uniformly (for every decrease in time by 5 units, position decreases by 5 units). This indicates that the horse is moving backward; thus, we can assume it's moving with negative velocity.

Now, let’s evaluate the options:

A. The horse decreased its velocity during this portion of the race.
- This implies that the speed of motion was getting lower, which cannot be inferred from the data, as the velocity is consistently negative.

B. The horse maintained a constant acceleration during this portion of the race.
- Since the position is changing uniformly with respect to time, this indicates constant velocity, hence constant acceleration can’t be established.

C. The horse maintained a constant velocity during this portion of the race.
- The uniform decrease in position with corresponding time measurements indicates a consistent velocity, thus this statement is true.

D. The horse increased its acceleration during this portion of the race.
- As previously noted, since the velocity is constant, acceleration cannot be increasing.

Based on this analysis, the correct statement is:
**C. The horse maintained a constant velocity during this portion of the race.**