[Math] Problem with moving particle along a straight line.

calculus

I'm trying to solve this displacement problem but I dont know where to even start. If you could please explain I would really appreciate it. My professor didn't teach and refuses to help.

The velocity (in meters/sec) of a particle moving along a straight line is given by $ v\, ( t ) =1 t^2 -4 t + 4 $, where $ t $ is measured in seconds.
Answer the following questions given that the initial position$ \, \,s (0) =1 $.

What is the meter position of the particle at any given time $ t $ ?

What is the meter position of the body at time $ t=4 $?

What is the meter position of the particle at time $ t=7 $ ?

What is the displacement of the particle on the time interval $ 4 \leq t \leq 7 $ ?

Best Answer

For the motion of a particle we have: $$\boldsymbol a(t) = \frac{d\boldsymbol v(t)}{dt},~~~~~~~~\boldsymbol v(t) = \frac{d\boldsymbol s(t)}{dt}.$$ Now you should be able to find $s(t)$ and answer the questions.

Warning! Think about the last question: is the displacement $s(7)-s(4)$? Or is it the total amount of meters the particle travelled? Analogously: If I go from Washington to Buenos Aires, and then to Miami, was my displacement the distance between Washington and Miami? or was it the distance between Washington and Buenos Aires plus the distance between Buenos Aires and Miami?

Recall also that (this comes from Physics and from integrating $a=\frac{dv}{dt}$):

$$\boldsymbol s(t) = \boldsymbol s(0)+\boldsymbol v(0)t+\frac{1}{2}\boldsymbol a(t)t^2$$