PHYS 101 Previous Exam Problems –

CHAPTER
Motion Along
2 a Straight Line
  Position & displacement
  Average & instantaneous velocity
  Average & instantaneous acceleration
  Constant acceleration
  Free fall
 Graphical problems

1. The position of an object is given as a function of time by x = 4.0 t2 – 3.0 t3, where x is in meters and t is in
seconds. What is its average acceleration during the interval from t = 1.0 s to t = 2.0 s? (Ans: −19 m/s2)
2. A car starts from rest and undergoes a constant acceleration. It travels 5.0 m in the time interval from t = 0
to t = 1.0 s. Find the displacement of the car during the time interval from t = 1.0 s to t = 2.0 s. (Ans: 15 m)
3. Figure 1 represents the velocity of a car moving on a straight line as a function of time.
Find the acceleration of the car at t = 6.0 s. (Ans: –3.0 m/s2)
4. Figure 2 shows the position-time graph of an object. What is the average velocity of the object between
t = 0.0 s and t = 5.0 s? (Ans: 2.0 m/s)
5. Figure 3 shows a velocity-time graph of a runner. If the runner starts from the origin, find his position at
t = 4.0 s. (Ans: 45 m)
6. An object is thrown vertically upward with an initial speed of 25 m/s from the ground. What is the height of
the object 1.0 s before it touches ground? (Ans: 20 m)
7. A car starts from rest and accelerates at a rate of 2.0 m/s2 in a straight line until it reaches a speed of 20 m/s.
The car then slows down at a constant rate of 1.0 m/s2 until it stops. How much time elapses (total time) from
start to stop? (Ans: 30 s)
8. A car travels along a straight line at a constant velocity of 18 m/s for 2.0 s and then accelerates at − 6.0
m/s2 for a period of 3.0 s. What is the average velocity of the car during the whole 5.0-s interval? (Ans: 13 m/s)
9. A stone is thrown vertically downward from the top of a 40-m tall building with an initial speed of 1.0 m/s.
How far will the stone travel in 2.0 s? (Ans: 22 m)
10. The coordinate of a particle in meters is given by: x(t)=2.0t − 2.0t2, where the time t is in seconds. At
what time will the particle be momentarily at rest? (Ans: 0.50 s)
11. An object starts from rest at the origin and moves along the x axis with a constant acceleration of
4 m/s2. What is its average velocity as it goes from x = 2 m to x = 18 m? (Ans: 8 m/s)
12. Two cars are 150 km apart and are traveling toward each other. One car is moving at 60 km/h and the
other is moving at 40 km/h. In how many hours will they meet? (Ans: 1.5 h)

Dr. M. F. Al-Kuhaili – PHYS 101 – Chapter 2 Page 1

13. A stone and a ball are thrown vertically upward with different initial speeds: 20 m/s for the stone and 10
m/s for the ball. If the maximum height reached by the ball is H, what is the maximum height reached by the
stone? (Ans: 4 H)
14. A particle starts from rest at t = 0 s. Its acceleration as a function of time is shown in figure 4. What is its
speed at the end of the 6.0-s interval? (Ans: 4.0 m/s)
15. The position of a particle as a function of time is described by the equation: x (t) = 2.0 + 3.0 t – t3,
where x is in m and t is in s. What is the maximum positive position of the particle on the x axis? (Ans: 4.0 m)
16. A stone is thrown vertically downward from a building with an initial speed of 2.0 m/s. It reaches the
ground after 5.0 s. What is the height of the building? (Ans: 130 m)
17. Each of the following four particles move along an x axis. Their coordinates as functions of time are given
by: particle 1: x (t) = 3.5 - 2.7t4 ; particle 2: x(t) = 3.5 + 2.7t3 ; particle 3: x(t) = 3.5 + 2.7t2; and particle 4:
x(t) = 3.5 - 3.4t - 2.7t2. Which of these particles have constant acceleration? (Ans: Only 3 & 4)
18. Starting at time t = 0, an object moves along a straight line. Its coordinate in meters is given by:
x (t) = 75t - 1.0t3, where t is in s. When the velocity of the object is zero, what is the value of its acceleration?
(Ans: –30 m/s2)
19. A man runs on a straight road for 8.0 km at a speed of 8.0 km/h. He then continues in the same direction
for another 6.0 km at a speed of 12 km/h. What is his average speed during this 14-km run? (Ans: 9.3 km/h)
20. A particle moves along the x axis. Its position from its starting point as a function of time t is shown in
figure 5. What is the total distance that this particle travels from t = 0 to t = 6.0 s? (Ans: 12 m)
21. A particle starts from x o = 10 m at time t o = 0. Its velocity as a function of time is as shown in figure 6.
Find the position of the particle at time t = 3.0 s. (Ans: 28 m) graph
22. An object starts from rest at the origin and moves along the x axis with a constant acceleration of 5.0
m/s2. Find its average velocity as it goes from x = 0 m to x = 10 m. (Ans: 5.0 m/s)
23. A particle, moving with constant acceleration, has a velocity of 10 cm/s when its position is x 0 =10 cm. Its
position 4.0 s later is x = –14 cm. What is the acceleration of the particle? (Ans: –8.0 cm/s2)
24. A stone is thrown vertically upward such that it has a speed of 9.0 m/s when it reaches one half of its
maximum height above the launch point. Determine the maximum height. (Ans: 8.3 m)
25. A rock is dropped (v o = 0) from a 100-m high cliff. It takes the rock 3.2 s to fall the first 50 m. How long
does it take to fall the second 50 m? (Ans: 1.3 s)
26. A stone is released from rest from height H. It takes 2.00 s to fall a vertical distance of H/2. What is the
time needed to fall the total vertical distance H? (Ans: 2.83 s)
27. A car, traveling at 20.0 m/s, is 30.0 m from a wall when the driver slams on the brakes. The car hits the
wall 2.00 s later. How fast is the car traveling when it hits the wall? (Ans: 10.0 m/s)
28. A ball is thrown vertically upward with an initial velocity v o , and reaches its maximum height in 6.0 s.
After how many seconds will it have a velocity –v o /2? (Ans: 9.0 s)
29. A car starts a trip from Dammam and travels 480 km in a straight line to Riyadh in 4.0 hours.
Immediately, the car is turned around, and returns to Dammam in 6.0 hours. Find the average speed of the car
for the whole trip. (Ans: 96 km/h)
30. An object is released from rest at a height H. It takes 2.00 s for the object to fall from point A to point B
(see figure 7). What is the initial height H? (Ans: 385 m)

Dr. M. F. Al-Kuhaili – PHYS 101 – Chapter 2 Page 2

31. An object is thrown at t = 0 vertically upward with a velocity of 48.9 m/s. What is its average velocity
between t = 2 s and t = 3 s? [Ignore air resistance] (Ans: 24.4 m/s)
32. A stone is thrown vertically upward with an initial speed of 10 m/s. What is its speed when it returns to a
height of 3.83 m above its starting point? (Ans: 5.0 m/s)
33. At a traffic light, a truck traveling at 10 m/s passes a car as it starts from rest. The truck travels at a
constant velocity and the car accelerates at 4.0 m/s2. How much time does the car take to catch up with the
truck? (Ans: 5.0 s)
34. Two cars A and B travel on a straight line. The displacement of car A is given by x A (t) =2.60 t+1.20 t2,
where t is in seconds and x A in meters. The displacement of car B is given by x B (t) =2.80 t2- 0.20 t3. At what
time will the two cars have the same acceleration? (Ans: 2.67 s)
35. A ball is thrown from ground straight upward with a velocity of 26 m/s. How long does it take the ball to
strike the ground? (Ans: 5.3 s)
36. A hot air balloon carrying a 10.0-kg block is descending vertically at a constant speed of 10.0 m/s. When
the balloon is 100 m above the ground, the block is released. How long does it take the block to reach the
ground? [Neglect air resistance] (Ans: 3.61 s)
37. Which of the graphs in figure 9 represents an object moving with a negative constant velocity? (Ans: 3)
38. A car moving along the positive x axis with constant acceleration covered the distance between two points
that are 60 m apart in 6.0 s. Its velocity as it passes the second point was 15 m/s. What was its velocity at the
first point? (Ans: 5.0 m/s)
39. An airplane makes a gradual 90.0o turn while flying at a constant speed of 200 m/s. The process takes 20 s
to complete. For this turn, what is the magnitude of the average acceleration of the plane? (Ans: 14.1 m/s2)
40. A stone is thrown vertically up from the edge of the top of a 100-m high building. It reaches the ground (at
the bottom of the building) after 10.0 s. What is the initial speed of the stone? (Ans: 39.0 m/s)
41. A car travels up a hill at a constant speed of 30 km/h and down the same hill at a constant speed of 50
km/h. Calculate the average speed of the car for the round trip (up and down the hill, the same distance).
(Ans: 38 km/h)
42. A motorist traveled a distance of 290 km. For the first half distance of 145 km he drove at a constant
speed 48 km/h. At what constant speed did he drive in the second half of distance if his average speed for the
total distance was 64 km/h? (Ans: 96 km/h)
43. Two identical objects, A and B, fall from rest from different heights, H A and H B to the ground. If object B
takes twice as long as A to reach the ground, what is the ratio of H A to H B ? Neglect air resistance. (Ans: 1/4)
44. A rock is thrown vertically upward from ground level at time t = 0. At time t = 1.5 s, it passes the top of a
building of height H, and 1.0 s later it reached its maximum height. What is the height H of the building?
(Ans: 26 m)

Dr. M. F. Al-Kuhaili – PHYS 101 – Chapter 2 Page 3

 ABCDE Conceptual Problems 

1. The position-time graph for an object is a straight line with a positive slope. The object has:
A. constant velocity
B. decreasing acceleration
C. increasing velocity
D. increasing acceleration
E. decreasing velocity
2. A helicopter at height h from the surface of the sea is descending at a constant speed v. The time it takes to
reach the surface of the sea can be found from:
A. -h = -v t
B. h = ½ g t2
C. -h = ½ g t2
D. h = v t – ½ g t2
E. -h = -v t – ½ g t2

3. Figure 8 shows the acceleration-time graph of a particle moving along an axis. In which of the time
intervals indicated in the figure, does the particle move at constant speed?
A. a and e
B. c and g
C. d and f
D. a, c, e, and g
E. b
◦ turn (U
4. A car is moving north at 20 km/h. It makes a gradual 180 -turn) at the same speed, changing its
direction of travel from north to south in 20 s. The average acceleration of the car for this turn is:
A. 2.0 km/h·s, toward the south
B. 1.0 km/h·s, toward the south
C. 1.0 km/h·s, toward the north
D. 2.0 km/h·s, toward the north
E. zero
5. A ball is in free fall. Its acceleration is: (ascent means going up, descent means going down)
A. downward during both ascent and descent
B. downward during ascent and upward during descent
C. upward during ascent and downward during descent
D. upward during both ascent and descent
E. downward at all times except at the very top, where it is zero

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