Acceleration and the Equations of Motion

Name: Acceleration and the Equations of Motion
Author: StemPy Lab

A car that is stopped at a light starts and goes faster each second. A driver who sees a child brakes hard. In this course we define acceleration, we read the velocity-time graph and find the distance from its area, and we get three equations that solve most problems of motion with a constant acceleration, such as the braking distance of a car.

3 lessons, about 1 h 15 min3 simulations12 problems6 practice questionsPython in every lesson

Created by StemPy Lab

Course outline (3 lessons)

Lesson 1about 25 min
Acceleration and velocity-time graphs
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, $a = \dfrac{\Delta v}{\Delta t}$ , in $\text{m/s}^2$ . It speeds a body up when it points the same way as the velocity, and slows it down when it points the other way. On a velocity-time graph, the slope is the acceleration and the area under the line is the displacement (area below the time axis counts as negative).
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program4 problems1 Python lab1 question set
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Lesson 2about 25 min
The equations of uniformly accelerated motion
For a steady acceleration, three equations link $u$ , $v$ , $a$ , $s$ and $t$ : $v = u + at$ , $s = ut + \tfrac12 at^2$ and $v^2 = u^2 + 2as$ . Each comes from the velocity-time graph. Choose the one that leaves out the quantity you neither know nor want, and keep one sign convention for every vector.
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program4 problems
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Lesson 3about 25 min
Using the equations: stopping distance and the nth second
A car's stopping distance is the thinking distance, $v\,t_r$ , covered at full speed during the reaction time, plus the braking distance, $\dfrac{v^2}{2b}$ . Because the braking distance grows as the square of the speed, a little more speed needs a lot more road. From rest with a steady acceleration, the distance in the $n$ th second is $\dfrac{a}{2}(2n - 1)$ , so successive seconds cover distances in the ratio $1 : 3 : 5 : \ldots$
1 simulation2 practice questions1 Python program4 problems1 Python lab1 note
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Equations of Motion: Practice Paper

20 questions · 50 min

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Acceleration and the Equations of Motion

Course outline (3 lessons)

Acceleration and velocity-time graphs

The equations of uniformly accelerated motion

Using the equations: stopping distance and the nth second

Test Your Learning

Your teacher

Discussion (0)