ASSIGNMENT #1

1. Normal spoken American English occurs at the rate of approximately five syllables per second. Think of an experiment you could try in class to verify whether this is accurate or not. In a paragraph or two, describe how you would do this in class.

2. Let's assume the statement in question 1 is correct. It is approximately 60 feet from the pitcher's mound to home plate in baseball. (It is actually 60.5 feet). How long would it take a baseball thrown at 90 mi/hr (or 135 feet/sec) to reach home plate? How does this compare to the time it takes to say the word "baseball"?

3. Suppose a car is traveling at 20 mi/hr (30 feet/sec) and comes to rest in 5 secs. What has been the acceleration of the car? Show your work.

4. In the Earth's gravitational field, objects fall with an acceleration of 32 feet/sec/sec (if there is no air resistance). What speed will an object acqu ire if it starts from rest and falls for five seconds? Can you try to figure out how far it would fall in that time (don't go running to find equations, see if you ca n figure it out). Show all work.