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NCEA Level 1 Acceleration — practice questions

Explore 20 free Acceleration questions in NCEA Level 1 Physics. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

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Acceleration questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–20 of 20.

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of which quantity?Read the answer and worked solution →What does it mean for an object to have constant acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →A subway train accelerates from rest to 30.0 km/h (8.333 m/s) in 20.0 s. What is its average acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →At the end of its trip, the same subway train slows from 30.0 km/h (8.333 m/s) to a stop in 8.00 s. What is its average acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →A cheetah accelerates from rest to a speed of 30.0 m/s in 7.00 s. What is its acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →A woman backs her car out of her garage with an acceleration of 1.40 m/s^2. How long does it take her to reach a speed of 2.00 m/s?Read the answer and worked solution →A dragster crosses the finish line at 140 m/s, having accelerated at a constant rate the whole way from rest. What was its average velocity for the run?Read the answer and worked solution →A dragster accelerates from rest at 26.0 m/s^2 over a quarter mile (402 m). What is its final velocity?Read the answer and worked solution →A class of dragsters can reach a top speed of 145 m/s in only 4.45 s from rest. What average acceleration does that represent?Read the answer and worked solution →An Olympic-class sprinter starts a race with a constant acceleration of 4.50 m/s^2. What is her speed 2.40 s later?Read the answer and worked solution →If a dragster accelerates at a rate of 39.2 m/s^2, how many g's (using g = 9.80 m/s^2) does the driver experience?Read the answer and worked solution →A rock is thrown straight up from a cliff edge with an initial velocity of 13 m/s. Taking up as positive and using g = 9.80 m/s^2, what is its position at t = 2.00 s?Read the answer and worked solution →The same rock is thrown straight up from a cliff edge at 13 m/s. Taking up as positive and using g = 9.80 m/s^2, what is its velocity at t = 3.00 s?Read the answer and worked solution →A velocity increases from 0 to 20 m/s over 10 s at a constant rate. What is the average acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →How long does it take to accelerate from 8.0 m/s to 20.0 m/s at a constant rate of 3.0 m/s^2?Read the answer and worked solution →If a plot of displacement versus time is a straight line, what does that say about the object's acceleration?Read the answer and worked solution →Under what condition is a velocity versus time graph a straight line rather than a curve?Read the answer and worked solution →For an object falling under constant gravity, which pair of graphs against time are straight lines?Read the answer and worked solution →During launch and reentry, about how many g's does the space shuttle produce for its occupants?Read the answer and worked solution →Drag racers compete over a standing start on a track of what length?Read the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of which quantity?

  1. The velocity
  2. The displacement
  3. The distance
  4. The elapsed time
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Correct answer: A. The velocity

1. The summary states plainly what acceleration measures. 2. Acceleration tracks how fast velocity itself is changing, not how fast position is changing. 3. Because velocity is in m/s and acceleration divides that by more seconds, its unit is m/s squared. _Source: OpenStax Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Acceleration", section 3.1 Acceleration_

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What does it mean for an object to have constant acceleration?

  1. Its acceleration does not change over time
  2. Its velocity never changes at all
  3. Its position never changes at all
  4. Its acceleration changes at a steady rate
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Correct answer: A. Its acceleration does not change over time

1. Constant acceleration describes the acceleration itself, not the velocity or the position. 2. Under constant acceleration, velocity still changes steadily even though the rate of that change stays fixed. 3. So a constant acceleration is simply one whose value does not vary with time. _Source: OpenStax Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Acceleration", section 3.2 Representing Acceleration with Equations and Graphs_

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A subway train accelerates from rest to 30.0 km/h (8.333 m/s) in 20.0 s. What is its average acceleration?

  1. 0.417 m/s^2
  2. 1.50 m/s^2
  3. 8.33 m/s^2
  4. 166 m/s^2
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Correct answer: A. 0.417 m/s^2

1. Starting from rest means v_0 = 0, and the final speed converts to 8.333 m/s. 2. delta v = 8.333 m/s - 0 = 8.333 m/s. 3. a = delta v / delta t = 8.333 m/s / 20.0 s = 0.417 m/s^2. _Source: OpenStax Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Acceleration", section 3.1 Acceleration_

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