Average Speed, Average Acceleration, and Top Speed of High End Cars

Go to http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=2572&page_number=17

Watch the videos of the various cars. Record the following data:

Car Name / Time to 1 Mile (s) / Instantaneous speed at 1 mile / Average Speed
(mi/s) / Average Speed (mi/hr) / Average Acceleration (mi/hr/s)
Honda Civic / 69.23 / 113 / .014 / 52 / 1.63

1. What cars have the greatest instantaneous speed? Graph this.

2. What cars have the greatest average speed? Graph this.

3. What cars have the greatest acceleration? Graph this.

4. Which car would have won the race? How do you know?

See the following datasheets for more data:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/0509_mile_speedometer.pdf

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/0509_mile_spread_carts.pdf

Winning Car vs. an F-18 Jet

Champ Car / F-18
Position (mi) / Time / Instantaneous Velocity (mi/hr) / Time / Instantaneous Velocity (mi/hr)
¼ / 9.9 / 161.4 / 11.9 / 154.2
½ / 15 / 188.3 / 16.7 / 218.0
¾ / 19.7 / 196.2 / 20.4 / 267.1
1 / 24.2 / 203.3 / 23.6 / 308.3

1. The above table shows the data for the winning car vs. the F-18.

2. Plot their positions in a displacement over time graph.

Which was ahead at each of the four positions?
Which one won in the end?

3. Plot their instantaneous velocity over time. Explain the graph.

4. Calculate their average acceleration.

From 0- ¼ mile
From ¼ to ½ mile.
From ½ to ¾ mile.
From ¾ to 1 mile.
Which had the greatest acceleration? Graph this.