A person walks 8.4522x10^1 m East, then turns around and walks 7.8409x10^1 m West. The total time to walk this distance was 8.7343x10^2 s. What is the speed of the walker, expressed to 3 significant figures?
Speed is scalar! therefore, it has magnitude, but no direction.
Add the two distances and divide by time!
ok and if i have more then two distances then do i add all 3 then divide??
To find the speed of the walker, we need to divide the total distance traveled by the total time taken.
First, let's convert the distances from scientific notation to regular decimal notation:
8.4522x10^1 m East = 84.522 m East
7.8409x10^1 m West = 78.409 m West
Next, we need to find the total distance traveled, which is the sum of the distances traveled in each direction:
Total distance = 84.522 m + (-78.409 m) = 6.113 m
Finally, we can calculate the speed:
Speed = Total distance / Total time = 6.113 m / 8.7343x10^2 s
Now, let's multiply the distance by the reciprocal of the time to get the speed:
Speed = 6.113 m * (1 / 8.7343x10^2 s)
= 6.113 m / 8.7343x10^2 s
= 0.007001 m/s
To express the speed to three significant figures, we can write it as 0.007 m/s.