A sailboat is initially moving at a speed of 5 ms a strong wind blows up and accelerates the boat forwards with a constant acceleration of 4 ms2 for 10 s what is the final speed of the sailboat?

Answer 1

It should be noted that in most cases a sailboat does not plane, thus it is actually limited to a speed which is dictated by the length of it's hull at the water line. So to calculate the maximum speed you would need the length of the hull at the water line. Then you would use the following formula:

VHULL = 1.34 x LWL1/2 knots

This is a basic one dimensional kinematics problem which can be solved using kinematics equations. For t=time v=final velocity o=original velocity, x=position (change of position) and a=acceleration, the following equations hold true:

v=o+at

x=(.5)(v-o)t

x=(o*t)+(.5)at^2

This [problem can be solved using the first equation.

From the problem:

v=unknown

o=5 m/s

a=4 m/s^2

t=10

Plug into the formula:

v=(5m/s) + (4m/s^2)(10s)

The solution is 45 m/s. (which would be a hell of a scary ride in a sailboat in my humble opinion)

Hope this halps