Acceleration (Notes)

Acceleration
the change in velocity per unit of time; it is a vector quantity and must have a direction; symbol is a;
SI unit is m/s/s or m/s2.

Since velocity is a vector quantity involving speed and direction, acceleration occurs when the speed of an
object changes, and/or the direction of the object changes.

The definition of acceleration can be expressed mathematically as,

where vf is the final velocity and vi is the initial velocity. The change in time is usually expressed as
simply t because you assume that the initial time was zero.
Instantaneous acceleration
the acceleration at that instant in time
Uniform acceleration
constant, unchanging acceleration; when an object is uniformly accelerated, the speed of the entire
time interval that the acceleration occurred over can be represented by the average velocity of that
time interval.
Variable acceleration
nonuniform acceleration. For our purposes, we assume that acceleration is uniform.
Positive acceleration
velocity of object increases
Negative acceleration
velocity of object decreases; the object may still be traveling in the positive direction, but since the
final velocity is smaller than the initial velocity, the object's acceleration is negative. An explanation
of positive and negative acceleration:

Consider an object moving to the right as moving in a positive direction and one moving to the left as
moving in a negative direction. Consider speeding up as representing positive and slowing down as
representing negative.

• An object going right (+) and speeding up (+) has positive acceleration (+ x + = +).
• An object moving right (+) and slowing down (-) has negative acceleration (+ x - = -).
• An object going left (-) and slowing down (-) has positive acceleration (- x - = +).
• An object going left (-) and speeding up (+) has negative acceleration (- x + = -).

Note: a negative acceleration does not always mean the object is slowing down. If an object were
moving in the negative direction, the acceleration would be negative as the object gained speed and
positive when the object lost speed. An example of this is the acceleration due to gravity. An object
in free fall has a negative acceleration even though it is increasing speed. It is negative because the
object is moving in a negative direction.
Average acceleration
the change in velocity divided by the time taken to make this change
Acceleration due to gravity (or g)
equal to –9.80 m/s2.
 The acceleration due to gravity is a constant rate of acceleration. It is negative because its direction is
negative (it always acts down, or toward the center of the earth). The acceleration due to gravity is
independent of the mass of the object. In a vacuum, all objects, regardless of mass, accelerate at the
same rate. The magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity is dependent upon the distance of the
object from the center of the earth. Galileo postulated that all objects would fall with the same
constant acceleration in the absence of air or other resistance.

The velocity and acceleration of an object are not necessarily in the same direction. When a ball is
thrown upward, its velocity is positive (upward), but its acceleration is downward (negative). At its
highest point, a ball thrown upward has a velocity of zero. Its acceleration is still -9.8 m/s2

Terminal velocity
the constant velocity reached by a freely-falling object due to air resistance; even though the object is
still accelerating, its velocity never changes.

Interactive terminal velocity demonstration

(http://www.explorescience.com/activities/Activity_page.cfm?ActivityID=27)
In physics, the relationship between variables is examined graphically. If you wanted to
experimentally determine the acceleration of an object, you would collect distance and time data. If
for each time interval, the distance that the object travels is changing, the object is accelerating. From
this data, you would determine the instantaneous velocity of the object at each instant of time. Since
your velocity depends upon the elapsed time, velocity (dependent variable) is graphed on the y-axis
and time (dependent variable) is graphed on the x-axis. The slope of the line gives the acceleration of
the object.

On a velocity vs time graph, a line of constant slope indicates that the object has uniform (constant)
acceleration. A horizontal line (a slope of zero) indicates that the object has zero acceleration and is
moving at constant velocity. On a graph, if a line has positive slope, we say that the object has
positive acceleration; if the line has negative slope, we say that the line has negative acceleration.

On a v vs t graph, you can mathematically write the equation for the motion of the object knowing the
slope and the y-intercept. Remember, the equation of a line is y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b
is the y-intercept.

The total displacement between any two times on a velocity vs time graph is equal to the area under
the curve between the two times. In other words, since d = vt, the area under the curve represents the
distance traveled. If your "curve" in question is a "rectangle," the distance traveled is found by
multiplying the time interval by the velocity interval (since the area of a rectangle is found by
multiplying the width by the length). If your "curve" looks like a "triangle," the distance traveled is
found by multiplying the time interval by the velocity interval by one-half (since the area of a
rectangle is found by 1/2 base x heigth). Or, you can find the average velocity and multiply it by the
time interval to find the distance traveled.

The area under an acceleration vs. time graph represents the change in velocity. If your "curve" in
question is a "rectangle," the change in velocity is found by multiplying the time interval by the
acceleration interval (since the area of a rectangle is found by multiplying the width by the length). If
your "curve" looks like a "triangle," the change in velocity is found by multiplying the time interval
by the acceleration interval by one-half (since the area of a rectangle is found by 1/2 base x height).
Or, you can find the average acceleration and multiply it by the time interval to find the change in
velocity. If the object's initial velocity is zero, the change in velocity would be equivalent to the final
velocity.

Virtual lab - students measure free fall times and average velocities as a function
of distance (http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/AverageVelocity/index.html)

Gravitational Response of a Twinkie

(http://www.twinkiesproject.com/gravitational.html)

Amusement Park Physics

(http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/freefall.html)

Java Applet Graphical Comparison of Acceleration, Velocity, and Displacement

(http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/java/xva/xva.html)

Acceleration formulas:
vf = vi + a t
d = v it + ½ a t 2
v f 2 = v i2 + 2 a d