Question

Information
A toy car travels in a straight line. The graph shows the position of the toy car as a function of time.
 
Short description, A line graph.,Long description,
The line graph shows the x-axis is labeled Time in seconds, and the y-axis is labeled Position in meters. The line begins at 0.0 seconds; 0.0 meters and increases steadily to 6.5 seconds, 1.5 meters.
Question
What is the speed of the toy car after 5.0 seconds?
Answer options with 4 options
A.
0.2 meters per second
B.
2.5 meters per second
C.
5.0 meters per second
D.
1.0 meter per second

Answer 1

To determine the speed of the toy car after 5.0 seconds, we can use the data from the graph description provided.

1. **Position at 5.0 seconds**: The position at 6.5 seconds is 1.5 meters. Since the line graph shows a steady increase, we can assume a linear relationship.
2. **Calculating the speed**:
- First, find the position at 0 seconds (which is 0 meters) and at 6.5 seconds (which is 1.5 meters).
- The distance traveled in that time is 1.5 meters - 0 meters = 1.5 meters.
- The time taken is 6.5 seconds - 0 seconds = 6.5 seconds.
- Speed (average) can be calculated as:
\[
\text{Speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}
= \frac{1.5 \text{ meters}}{6.5 \text{ seconds}}
\approx 0.231 \text{ meters per second}
\]

3. For a more specific calculation, to find the speed at exactly 5.0 seconds, we can observe that since the line is linear, we can interpolate:
- The position at 6.5 seconds is 1.5 meters. We can determine that:
For 5.0 seconds:
- As a proportion of the total time:
\[
\frac{5.0}{6.5} \text{ of the distance } 1.5 \text{ meters}
\]
\[
\text{Position at 5.0 seconds} \approx 1.5 \times \frac{5.0}{6.5} \approx 1.15 \text{ meters}
\]

4. Now that we established the position after 5.0 seconds is roughly 1.15 meters, we can find the speed at that point:
- Distance traveled in this case would be from 0 to 1.15 meters, taking 5.0 seconds:
\[
\text{Speed at 5.0 seconds} = \frac{1.15 \text{ meters}}{5.0 \text{ seconds}} \approx 0.23 \text{ meters per second}
\]

Given the answer choices, the closest option to our calculated speed (0.23 m/s) is:

**A. 0.2 meters per second.**