Acceleration Notes – Day One
Acceleration –

What does acceleration measure?

Is acceleration a scalar or vector quantity?

What can change to produce an acceleration?

Examples:
Calculating Acceleration –

How is the magnitude of acceleration calculated?

In other words, average acceleration =

Formula:
The position vs. time graph represents the motion of 3 cars. Describe the motion of each car.
A–
B–
C-
Practice Problem 1 –
A car slows down from 60 mi/hr to 20 mi/hr in 4.0 seconds. What is its acceleration?
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve
What does it mean when you get a negative acceleration?
Practice Problem 2 –
A shuttle bus slows to a stop with an average acceleration of -1.8 m/s2. How long does it take the
bus to slow from 9.0 m/s to 0 m/s?
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve
Now, you can complete Section 2 (#6-9) in your Practice Problems.
Acceleration Notes – Day Two
Constant Velocity:

What does it mean to have a constant velocity?

When Δv = 0, what does this tell you about velocity and acceleration?
Velocity
Acceleration
Motion
In a displacement vs. time graph, what does the slope of the line represent?
What kind of motion is shown here?
What does the slope of a velocity vs. time graph tell you about the object’s motion?
What is happening from:
A-B
B-C
C-D
D-E
E-F
F-G
G-H
Motion with Constant Acceleration –
What would a graph of constant acceleration look like?

Constant acceleration means --
Displacement –

Represented by ____________

Displacement depends on 3 variables --

Displacement = ½ (initial velocity + final velocity) (time)

Formulas:
Practice Problem #3
A racing car reaches a speed of 42 m/s. It then begins a uniform negative acceleration, using its
parachute and braking system and comes to rest 5.5 s later. Find how far the car moves while
stopping.
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve
Acceleration Notes – Day Three
Simply by rearranging the equation for average acceleration, we can find the final velocity.
And if you want to know the displacement of an object moving with uniform acceleration over a
given time, you can find another useful formula by combining 2 formulas:
If we combine:
With:
We get this new formula:
Practice Problem #4
A plane starting from rest at one end of a runway undergoes a uniform acceleration of 4.8 m/s 2 for
15 s before takeoff.
a) What is its speed at takeoff?
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve
b) How long must the runway be for the plane to be able to take off?
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve
By manipulating the formulas we have discussed so far, and rearranging them several times… we get
a new formula which allows us to solve for –
Practice problem #5
A person pushing a stroller starts from rest, uniformly accelerating at a rate of 0.500 m/s 2 .
What is the velocity of the stroller after it has traveled 4.75 m ?
Givens
Unknown
Equation
Substitute
Solve