Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about...

ACCELERATION
Acceleration
 Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity
over time
 Acceleration is a vector
 SI units for acceleration are m/s2

p le
x m
a
E a = 5 m/s2 [S]

OR
Acceleration
p le
x m
a
E A car starting from rest gets to a speed of 60 km/h in
5.5 s. Find the acceleration of the car.

rst
u tFi
B  Convert to the right units

 The right units are always:

 m (for d)
 s (for t)
 m/s (for v)
Acceleration
p le
ma A car goes from 20 m/s [E] to 10 m/s [E] in 7 s.
E x
Find the acceleration.
Acceleration
b er
em
em
R  Acceleration is a change in velocity not just
an increase in velocity.

 An object slowing down is accelerating (it would

be a negative number).

 The word deceleration is rarely used.

Acceleration
tor
Ve c
age
ant
Ad v
 Slowing down is just accelerating in the
opposite direction

 You can always get rid of the negative sign

for a vector by switching the direction
Acceleration
a c t
n F
Fu
ore
e M
On

 An object travelling at a constant speed can

be accelerating.

 Because acceleration is a change in velocity

direction matters not just speed.
 Acceleration
p le
ma A car goes from 10 m/s [N] to 10 m/s [S] in 12 s.
E x
Find the acceleration.
Acceleration from a graph

 Acceleration can be calculated from the slope

of a v vs. t graph
Straight line graph has the Curved graph has a different
same acceleration acceleration at each time