The officials at a race have learned that one of the contestants has been eating illegal performance-enhancing vegetables. If either animal exceeds its previous records, it has cheated. Your job is to identify the cheater.

It is well known among track enthusiasts that the tortoise always runs at a constant velocity and the hare always runs with a constant acceleration. The tortoise’s personal best is 5.57 m/s. The hare’s most rapid acceleration has been 7.88 m/s².

If either animal beats its previous best, it is the guilty party in the vegetable scandal. The hare gives the tortoise a head start of 31.0 meters to make the race more interesting.

Click on the graphic on the right and press GO to start the race. You will see values for the positions of the tortoise and the velocity of the hare in the control panel. You will need to record these values at a couple times in the race. Press PAUSE during the race to do so. Press PAUSE to resume the race as well.

From the values you record, calculate the velocity of the tortoise and the acceleration of the hare. Who is cheating?

If you decide the tortoise cheated, click on the lettuce; if the culprit is the hare, click on the carrots. The simulation will confirm (or reject) your conclusion. Press RESET and GO to run the race again if you need to.

If you have trouble answering the question, refer to the sections on velocity and acceleration, and look at the equations that define these terms.