Nathan Keith

Calculus Signature Assignment 2

Antiderivatives

A train accelerates and decelerates at the rate of 3 ft/s​2​. Its maximum cruising speed is
75mi/h. Given that there are 5280 feet in one mile, use your knowledge of the
relationship between position, velocity and acceleration to answer the following
questions.

a) In a total of 20 minutes, the train starts from rest, accelerates to its maximum
cruising speed and continues at that speed for a time, and then must come to a
complete stop. What is the distance it has traveled? Give your answer in miles.

First, I need to standardize units by converting 75 mph to 110 ft/s​2

(75*5280/(60*60)=110) and by converting 20 minutes to 1200 seconds (20*60=1200). I
can see that the acceleration happens by the equation A(t)=3, so I can take the
antiderivative of it to find the velocity function, which is V(t)=3t+V​0​. I can take the
antiderivative of the velocity function to find the position function, which is
S(t)=3/2t​2​+V​0​t+S​0​.

Now that I have all the equations, I can start using them to find stuff. If I plug in 110 for
V(t) and 0 for V​0​, I can see that 110=3t+0, which means that t=110/3 (approximately
36.7) and that it takes 110/3 seconds for the train to achieve maximum cruising speed.
Since the train decelerates at the same rate that it accelerates, it takes 110/3 seconds
for the train to stop all the way. We can plug 110/3 into the position equation to see how
far the train goes while speeding up (S(110/3)=3/2(110/3)​2​=6050/3), which shows us
that the train travels 6050/3 ft while accelerating or decelerating. If we subtract 220/3
(which is the acceleration time plus the deceleration time) from 1200 (which is the total
time allotment), we find that the train spends 3380/3 seconds at maximum cruising
speed. If we multiply the time spent at top speed by the top speed, we get that the train
traveled 371800/3 ft at top speed (3380/3*110=371800/3). If we use the Fundamental
Theorem of Calculus (F(b)-F(a)), where we are finding the position, we would plug
3380/3 in for b (since it is the upper limit of the area we are find) and 0 in for a (since it
is our initial, or lower limit), and we would use the velocity equation for F(t) (since the
velocity function is the antiderivative of the position function), giving us the equation
(3(3380/3)+0)-(3(0)+0)=3380 ft traveled while the train was accelerating. Since the rate
of acceleration is the same as the rate of deceleration, the train also traveled 3380 ft
while decelerating. When we add the three times together, we find that the train traveled
a total of 130693.3 ft (6050/3+6050/3+371800/3=383900/3 which is approximately
127966.7). If we divide that time by 5280 to convert it to miles (383900/3/5280
approximately equals 24.2), we find that the train traveled approximately 24.2 miles
during the 20 minute trip.

b) Find the minimum time it would take the train to travel between two consecutive
stations that are 50 miles apart. Give your answer in minutes.

In the previous problem, I established that it takes the train 110/3 seconds for the train
to accelerate from 0 to 75 mph (0 to 110 ft/sec) and that the train travels 6050/3 ft while
accelerating and 6050/3 ft while decelerating. We need to convert the 50 miles to
264000 feet (50*5280=264000). Now I just need to find how long the train was running
at maximum speed. If we subtract 6050/3*2 (the distance traveled while changing
speeds) from 264000 (the total distance) (264000-6050/3*2=779900/3), we find that the
train travels 779900/3 ft while at top speed. If we divide 779900/3 ft by 110 ft/sec
(779900/3/110=7090/3), we can see that the train spent 7090/3 seconds at top speed.
We can add the acceleration time, deceleration time, and time at top speed to find the
total time (110/3+110/3+7090/3=7310/3) to be 7310/3 seconds, which when divided by
60 to convert to minutes (7310/3/60 approximately equals ), yields approximately 40.6
minutes.

c) If the minimum time from one station to the next is 18.5 minutes, how far apart
are the stations? Give your answer in miles.

Since it takes 11/18 minutes (110/3/60=11/18) to accelerate completely or decelerate

completely, we can subtract that twice from the 18.5 minutes to find out how long the
train was at top speed (18.5-11/18*2=311/18), which was 311/18 minutes. By
multiplying the time the train was at top speed by the speed, we find the distance
traveled (311/18*110/60=3421/108), which is 3421/108. We add that distance to the
distance traveled while accelerating and decelerating to find the total distance traveled
in feet (6050/3*2+3421/108 is approximately 4065 feet). We can divide 4065 feet by
5280 to get approximately .8 miles.