Linty Fresh
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2005
- Messages
- 58
OK, so I've been working on a problem finding the average and instantaneous velocity of a steel ball dropped from a tower with the equation:
y=16x^2, x=seconds, y=feet
I'm supposed to find the average velocity from x=1 to x=1+dx, and that wasn't hard. I wound up with 32+16dx ft/sec. Then the question asks me to find the instantaneous velocity at x=1. Now I realize that this involves the limit of dx approaching 0 and winding up with 32 ft/sec, but this doesn't make sense to me, because according to the original equation, it should be 16 ft/sec, right? Plug x into 16x^2, and you wind up with 16 ft, and this is over 1 second, so according to Distance=Rate/Time, you wind up with 16 ft/sec.
Am I working the original equation wrong, or am I misunderstanding the concept of instantaneous velocity?
Also, is there a way to do superscript for my exponents so that I can get rid of the carat symbol?
Thanks.
y=16x^2, x=seconds, y=feet
I'm supposed to find the average velocity from x=1 to x=1+dx, and that wasn't hard. I wound up with 32+16dx ft/sec. Then the question asks me to find the instantaneous velocity at x=1. Now I realize that this involves the limit of dx approaching 0 and winding up with 32 ft/sec, but this doesn't make sense to me, because according to the original equation, it should be 16 ft/sec, right? Plug x into 16x^2, and you wind up with 16 ft, and this is over 1 second, so according to Distance=Rate/Time, you wind up with 16 ft/sec.
Am I working the original equation wrong, or am I misunderstanding the concept of instantaneous velocity?
Also, is there a way to do superscript for my exponents so that I can get rid of the carat symbol?
Thanks.
