A garden snail moves in a straight line from rest to 1.28 cm s⁻¹, with a constant acceleration in 1.8 seconds - AQA - A-Level Maths Pure - Question 10 - 2018 - Paper 2

Acceleration (a) can be calculated using the formula:

$a = \frac{v - u}{t}$

where:

• v = final velocity
• u = initial velocity (0 m s⁻¹ since the snail starts from rest)
• t = time (1.8 s)

Substituting the known values:

$a = \frac{0.0128 ext{ m s}^{-1} - 0 ext{ m s}^{-1}}{1.8 ext{ s}}$

This simplifies to:

$a = \frac{0.0128 ext{ m s}^{-1}}{1.8 ext{ s}} = 0.007111... ext{ m s}^{-2}$

Rounding to three significant figures, the acceleration of the snail is:

$a \approx 0.00711 ext{ m s}^{-2}$

Hence, the most suitable answer to circle is 0.0071 m s⁻².