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In addition to the revision notes for Acceleration v's Time Graph on this page, you can also access the following Kinematics learning resources for Acceleration v's Time Graph
Tutorial ID | Title | Tutorial | Video Tutorial | Revision Notes | Revision Questions | |
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3.11 | Acceleration v's Time Graph |
In these revision notes for Acceleration v's Time Graph, we cover the following key points:
In Uniform Motion, there is no acceleration (a⃗ = 0) as the velocity is constant. Therefore, the acceleration vs time graph will be a straight line extending on the horizontal (time) axis.
In the uniformly accelerated (decelerated) motion, the acceleration is constant but not zero. Therefore, it will not be at the horizontal axis but above or below it depending on the sign of acceleration, although it is still horizontal. This means when the acceleration is positive (the object is speeding up), the acceleration vs time graph will be a horizontal line above the time axis and when it is negative (while slowing down), the acceleration vs time graph will be a horizontal line below the time axis.
Acceleration cannot be a scalar; it is always a vector quantity as it can also be negative.
When acceleration changes uniformly, we can make use of the average acceleration concept and then consider the process as a motion with constant acceleration. In this way, we can still use the kinematic formulae (which in fact are valid only for the motion with constant acceleration).
When the motion is irregular, we divide the graph in small sections in which the acceleration is regarded as changing uniformly. Then, the average acceleration concept for each section is used to substitute the values of the irregular acceleration in the given interval.
The following rules express the relationship between kinematic quantities involved in the graphs of motion:
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