Question

Which sentence best describes the athlete whose distance-time graph is shown below?

• A. The athlete ran forward for 3 seconds, and then he ran backward for 3 more seconds.
• B. The athlete ran forward for 3 seconds, and then he stood still for 3 more seconds.
• C. The athlete ran forward for 3 seconds, and then he ran forward for 3 more seconds but with a lower speed.
• D. The athlete ran forward for 3 seconds, and then he moved forward for 3 more seconds with a greater speed.

Answer 1

The correct option is C

The athlete ran forward for 3 seconds, and then he ran forward for 3 more seconds but with a lower speed.

Both segments of this graph have a positive slope, so the athlete is running forward the whole time. The first half of the graph is steeper, which indicates faster running speed and the second half of the graph is having less slope than first half, showing that the athlete slowed down a bit.