CHAPTER 2 - MOTION IN A STRAIGHT LINE
1. In which of the following examples of motion, can the body be considered approximately a point object.
(a) A railway carriage moving without jerks between two stations.
(b) A monkey sitting on top of a man cycling smoothly on a circular track.
(c) A spinning cricket ball that turns sharply on hitting the ground.
(d) A tumbling beaker that has slipped off the edge of table.
2. The position-time (x -1) graphs for two children A and B returning from their school O to their homes P and Q
respectively are shown in Fig. Choose the correct entries in the brackets below:
(a) (A/B) lives closer to the school than (B/A).
(b) (A/B) starts from the school earlier than (B/A).
(c) (A/B) walks faster than (B/A).
(d) A and B reach home at the (same/different) time.
(e) (A/B) overtakes (B/A) on the road (once/twice).
3. A woman starts from her home at 9.00 am, walks with a speed of 5 km h -1 on a straight road up to her office 2.5 km away,
stays at the office up to 5.00 pm, and returns home by an auto with a speed of 2.5 km h-1. Choose suitable scales and plot
the x-t graph of her motion.
4. A drunkard walking in a narrow lane takes 5 steps forward and 3 steps backward, followed again by 5 steps forward and
3 steps backward, and so on. Each step is 1 m long and requires 1 s. Plot the x-t graph of his motion. Determine
graphically and otherwise how long the drunkard takes to fall in a pit 13 m away from the start.
5. A car moving along a straight highway with speed of 126 km h -1 is brought to a stop within a distance of 200 m. What is
the retardation of the car (assumed uniform), and how long does it take for the car to stop?
6. Two trains A and B of length 400 m each are moving on two parallel tracks with a uniform speed of 71 km h -1 in the same
direction, with A ahead of B. The driver of B decides to overtake A and accelerates by 1 ms -1. If after 50 s, the guard of B
just brushes past the driver of A, what was the original distance between them?
7. A player throws a ball upwards with an initial speed of 29.4 ms -1.
(a) What is the direction of acceleration during the upward motion of the ball?
(b) What are the velocity and acceleration of the ball at the highest point of its motion?
(c) Choose the x = 0 m and t = 0 s to be the location and time of the ball at its highest point, vertically downward direction
to be the positive direction of x-axis, and give the signs of position, velocity and acceleration of the ball during its
upward, and downward motion.
(d) To what height does the ball rise and after how long does the ball return to the player’s hands? (Take g = 9.8 m s -2 and
neglect air resistance).
8. Read each statement below carefully and state with reasons and examples, if it is true or false; A particle in one-
dimensional motion
(a) with zero speed at an instant may have non-zero acceleration at that instant.
(b) with, zero speed may have non-zero velocity.
(c) with constant speed must have zero acceleration,
(d) with positive value of acceleration must be speeding up.
9. Explain clearly, with examples, the distinction between:
(a) Magnitude of displacement (sometimes called distance) over an interval of time, and the total length of path covered
by a particle over the same interval;
(b) Magnitude of average velocity over an interval of time, and the average speed over the same interval. (Average speed
of a particle over an interval of time is defined as the total path length divided by the time interval). Show in both (a) and
(b) that the second quantity is either greater than or equal to the first. When is the equality sign true? [For simplicity,
consider one dimensional motion only].
10. A man walks on a straight road from his home to a market 2.5 km away with a speed of 5 km h -1 .Finding the market
closed, he instantly turns and walks back home with a speed of 7.5 km h -1 What is the (a)Magnitude of average velocity,
and (b)Average speed of the man over the interval of time (i) 0 to 30 min. (ii) 0 to 50 min. (iii) 0 to 40 min? [Note: You will
appreciate from this exercise why it is better to define average speed as total path length divided by time, and not as
magnitude of average velocity. You would not like to tell the tired man on his return home that his average speed was
zero!]
11. Look at the graphs (a) to (d) Fig. carefully and state, with reasons, which of these cannot possibly represent one-
dimensional motion of a particle.
12. A three – wheeler starts from rest , accelerates uniformly with 1 m s-2 on a straight road for 10 s, and then moves with
uniform velocity .plot the distance covered by the vehicle during the n th second (n=1,2,3……..) versus n. what do you
expect this plot to be during accelerated motion: a straight line or a parabola?
13. A particle is thrown upwards. It attains a height (h) after 5 seconds and again after 9s comes back. What is the
speed of the particle at a height h?
14. A train takes 1 hr. to go from one station to another. It travels at a speed of 30km/h for first half hour andat a
speed of 50km/h for the next half hour. Find the average speed of the train.
15. If a body travels 1/3 distance with a velocity of 2m/s next 1/3 distance with a velocity of 4m/s and theremaining
1/3 distance with a velocity of 6m/s. Find the average velocity of the body?
16. A stone is thrown in a vertically upward direction with a velocity of 5 ms−1. If the acceleration of the stone during
its motion is 10 ms−2 in the downward direction, what will be the height attained by the stone and how much time
will it take to reach there?
