In conjunction with the Philadelphia Zoo, we made an experiment to find out the motion of a typical ostrich in relation to the calculation of average speed and acceleration using split times. The ostrich the test was conducted upon is shown in the image to the left.
In order to organize our data in the most efficient way possible, we use a collection of different tables that you, as the viewer and critic, will be able to use to fully understand the motion of the ostrich. The first table that we will show is the actual table of total time elapsed versus total distance travelled by the ostrich. We received this table directly from the field at the Philadelphia Zoo. It is shown below:
| Time (minutes) |
Distance (miles) |
|---|---|
| 15 | 2.5 |
| 30 | 7.5 |
| 45 | 17.5 |
| 60 | 27.5 |
| Time (minutes) |
Distance (miles) |
Average Speed (miles per minute) |
|---|---|---|
| 0-15 | 2.5 | .16 |
| 15-30 | 5 | .33 |
| 30-45 | 10 | .66 |
| 45-60 | 10 | .66 |
| 0-60 | 27.5 | .46 |
To get a better feel for how the ostrich's motion was progressing throughout the race, we calculated the distance travelled in each 15 minute interval by splitting up the run in split times. We then calculated the average speed for each split time to get a visual of how fast the ostrich was approximately going during each split. We calculated the splits by subtracting the first distance from the second, the second from the third, and so on. We were able to calculate average speed by dividing distance by time. The table containing all of this information is shown on the right.
| Time (minutes) |
Distance (miles) |
Average Speed (miles per hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 0-15 | 2.5 | 10 |
| 15-30 | 5 | 20 |
| 30-45 | 10 | 40 |
| 45-60 | 10 | 40 |
| 0-60 | 27.5 | 27.5 |
To make the conception of the speed of the ostrich easier to imagine, we converted the average speed into miles per hour rather than miles per minute. We did this by multiplying the values by 60 because there are 60 minutes in an hour.
As our next step, we calculated the acceleration of the ostrich because acceleration, the change in velocity, of the ostrich is vital to the complete visualization of the motion of the animal. We calculated acceleration by dividing the change in (delta) speed by the change in (delta) time. The unit of acceleration in this table is miles per hour per minute or miles/hour/minute.
| Time (minutes) |
Distance (miles) |
Average Speed (miles per hour) |
Acceleration (miles per hour per minute) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-15 | 2.5 | 10 | .66 |
| 15-30 | 5 | 20 | .66 |
| 30-45 | 10 | 40 | 1.33 |
| 45-60 | 10 | 40 | 0 |
| 0-60 | 27.5 | 27.5 | .46 |
| Time (minutes) |
Distance (miles) |
Average Speed (miles per hour) |
Acceleration (miles per hour per hour) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-15 | 2.5 | 10 | 40 |
| 15-30 | 5 | 20 | 40 |
| 30-45 | 10 | 40 | 80 |
| 45-60 | 10 | 40 | 0 |
| 0-60 | 27.5 | 27.5 | 27.5 |
I'm not sure about you, but we weren't able to visualize acceleration in increments of miles per hour per minute. To help our "limited" imaginations, we converted the miles per hour per minute into miles per hour per hour by multiplying the values by 60. We multiplied it by 60 for the same reason we converted miles per minute into miles per hour, there are 60 minutes in an hour.
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