A racing car passes point P at a speed of 35 ms⁻¹ - Edexcel - A-Level Physics - Question 5 - 2023 - Paper 1

To find the distance s between points P and Q using the formula for uniformly accelerated motion, we can apply the formula:

$s = u \cdot t + \frac{1}{2} a t^2$

where:

• $u$ is the initial velocity (35 ms⁻¹)
• $t$ is the time (5.0 s)
• $a$ is the acceleration

Since we want to determine the average speed during the acceleration, we use:

$s = 0.5 \times (u + v) \cdot t$

In this case, $u = 35$ ms⁻¹, $v = 50$ ms⁻¹, and $t = 5$ s. Therefore:

$s = 0.5 \times (35 + 50) \times 5$

Solving this gives:

$s = 0.5 \times 85 \times 5 = 212.5 m.$