Answer:
[tex]-31.1 m/s^2[/tex]
Explanation:
The acceleration of an object is the rate of change of velocity of the object.
Mathematically, it is calculated as:
[tex]a=\frac{v-u}{t}[/tex]
where
u is the initial velocity
v is the final velocity
t is the time taken for the velocity to change from u to v
Acceleration is a vector, so it is important to also take into account the direction of the velocity.
For the particle in this problem, we have:
u = +48 m/s is the initial velocity (positive direction)
v = -92 m/s is the final velocity (negative direction)
t = 4.5 s is the time interval
Therefore, the average acceleration is
[tex]a=\frac{v-u}{t}=\frac{-92-(+48)}{4.5}=-31.1 m/s^2[/tex]
