Acceleration

Rate of change of velocity with respect to time.

SI Unit: Metre per second squared (m s^-2)

• Vector quantity

An object is said to be accelerating if its velocity is changing in any way.

Average⠀Acceleration=\frac{Change⠀in⠀Velocity}{Time⠀Taken}

a=\frac{v-u}{t}

Formulae

v=u+at

s=ut+\frac12at^2

v^2=u^2+2as

Velocity Time Graph

Graph showing how the velocity of an object varies with time.

Slope of the graph is the acceleration of the object.

Acceleration Due to Gravity

In the absence of air friction all objects near the Earth’s surface will fall downwards with the same acceleration.

g = 9.8 m s^-2