A person walks 2.8597x10^1 m East, then turns around and walks 8.7898x10^1 m West. The total time to walk this distance was 4.4004x10^2 s. What is the velocity of the walker, expressed to 3 significant figures?
Note: Your answer is assumed to be reduced to the highest power possible.
Your Answer: x10
Answer
To find the velocity of the walker, we need to calculate the displacement and divide it by the total time taken.
First, let's calculate the displacement. The person walked 2.8597x10^1 m East and then turned around and walked 8.7898x10^1 m West. To find the displacement, we subtract the distance walked in the West direction from the distance walked in the East direction.
Displacement = (2.8597x10^1 m) - (8.7898x10^1 m)
Displacement = -5.93x10^1 m (since the result is negative, indicating that the person ended up West of the starting point)
Now, we can find the velocity.
Velocity = Displacement / Time
Velocity = (-5.93x10^1 m) / (4.4004x10^2 s)
Velocity = -0.1349 m/s (rounded to 4 significant figures)
Therefore, the velocity of the walker, expressed to 3 significant figures, is -0.135 m/s.