Motions and Functions

                                                        M O T I O N S  &  F U N C T I O N S

                                                                          x = Time (t)
                                                               y = Position of the vehicle
                                     It's important to know that physically time CANNOT be negative!

1) The Explanation of the Motion in each vehicle:

 Vehicle A: y = 30t (red line). It's a straight line that starts from a negative value which passes through 0 and increases fast.

Vehicle B: y = -25x + 1200. It's also a straight line that passes through the y axis at this point: 1200, and then decreases. After 48 seconds it stops.

Vehicle C: y = 0.5x squared. It's an exponential line that is always positive (for every value of x). He first decreases, and then increases after x > 0

                                                                  Answers to Questions:

1) Did all the vehicles depart from the same place? 

No they didn't, some of them have started from the negative side, although we shouldn't count the negative time, because time can't be negative, as I said previously. I think that the same conclusion can be taken for the distance. I also think that a and c are starting from the same position.

 2) Were all of them at the same speed?
                                                                 Speed = Change in Distance

                                                                                 Change in Time

They don't have the same speed. In the first couple of seconds the speed of the vehicle a is the biggest, but after it changes.

3) Were all the speeds constant?

First I thought that vehicle A and B will have a constant speed, but vehicle A will increase its distance while vehicle B will drop its distance to 0, that means that it will certainly slow down, so that B cannot have a constant speed. My answer is that only the speed of A will be constant.