Initial conditions Q

[Andiio]

Attached is the Q!

My reasoning to take the positive sq root of the velocity was that:
At t = 0, v = 1/2 m/s, and a = 3 m/s^2 which is >0, so at t=0, the body of mass is accelerating from 1/2 m/s and so must be positive.



However, in the solutions the reasoning was that 0<v<1.

Would I still be able to gain full marks for my reasoning?

[dc302]

Yes you would get full marks for that also, noting that a positive square root is strictly positive and a neg root is strictly negative, so if you took the negative root, there would have been no way for the velocity to be positive 1/2.