Speed Velocity and Acceleration Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. An object's acceleration is zero over a time interval. What can be concluded about its velocity during that interval?
Its velocity must be zero.
Its direction must change while its speed stays constant.
Its speed must decrease at a constant rate.
Its velocity remains constant, though it may be zero or nonzero.
2. Which statement correctly distinguishes speed from velocity?
Speed includes direction, while velocity has magnitude only.
Speed has magnitude only, while velocity includes magnitude and direction.
Speed measures distance, while velocity measures time.
Speed describes changing motion, while velocity describes only constant motion.
3. A walker goes 300 meters north and then returns to the starting point. What is the walker's average velocity for the complete trip?
It equals the total distance divided by the total time.
It is twice the average speed because the route has two parts.
It is 300 meters per unit of time toward the north.
It is zero because the total displacement is zero.
4. A velocity-time graph shows a horizontal line at 8 m/s. What does this indicate?
The object is stationary and has constant acceleration.
The object travels 8 meters in total.
The object has constant velocity and zero acceleration.
The object's velocity increases by 8 m/s each second.
5. What does the signed area between a velocity-time graph and the time axis represent?
Average acceleration
Final speed
Displacement
Total elapsed time
6. Which SI unit is used for speed and velocity?
Meters multiplied by seconds (m·s)
Meters per second squared (m/s²)
Meters per second (m/s)
Seconds per meter squared (s/m²)
7. On a distance-time graph, what does a steeper upward line represent compared with a less steep upward line?
A smaller total distance regardless of elapsed time
A greater speed
A greater acceleration in every case
Motion in the opposite direction
8. A runner travels 100 meters east in 20 seconds along a straight path. What is the runner's average velocity?
100 meters east
5 meters per second east
20 meters per second east
2,000 meters per second east
9. Two runners move at 6 m/s, one north and the other south. Which statement is correct?
They have the same speed but different velocities.
They have different speeds but the same velocity.
They have the same velocity because their speed magnitudes match.
Neither runner has velocity because their directions differ.
10. Ignoring air resistance, a ball is moving upward after being thrown. What is the direction of its acceleration before it reaches its highest point?
Upward, because the ball is moving upward
There is no acceleration until the ball begins to fall.
The acceleration alternates between upward and downward.
Downward, because gravitational acceleration acts toward Earth
11. What does acceleration measure?
The distance traveled during each unit of time
The total displacement from a starting point
The rate at which velocity changes with time
The direction of motion without regard to speed
12. A car is moving east but slowing down. In which direction is its acceleration?
West, opposite the car's velocity
There is no acceleration because the car still moves east.
East, because that is the direction of motion
Upward, because the car's speed is decreasing
13. How is average speed calculated for an entire trip?
Total distance traveled divided by total time
Total displacement divided by total time
Initial speed plus final speed
Final speed minus initial speed
14. A train's velocity increases from 10 m/s to 22 m/s in 4 seconds. What is its average acceleration?
8 m/s²
3 m/s²
48 m/s²
5.5 m/s²
15. A vehicle travels at 72 kilometers per hour. What is this speed in meters per second?
20 m/s
12 m/s
25.9 m/s
7.2 m/s
16. A cyclist moves around a circular track at a constant speed. Why is the cyclist accelerating?
The cyclist's mass changes around the track.
Any moving object must be increasing its speed.
The distance traveled becomes smaller on each lap.
The cyclist's direction, and therefore velocity, continually changes.