Acceleration

Our new topic in Physics is acceleration (speeding up or slowing down).

With the motion sensor, the class was able to see what position, velocity and acceleration graphs look like in certain situations.

1. When an object accelerates (speeds up) forward from the reference point.


2. When an object accelerates (slows down) backward towards the reference point.


3. When an object accelerates (slows down) forward from the reference point.


4. When an object accelerates (speeds up) backward towards the reference point.



The Situations:

 Velocity          Acceleration
1.   +                       +                    Speeding up forward
2.   -                       +                    Slowing down backward
3.   +                       -                    Slowing down forward
4.   -                       +                    Speeding up backward

Example Data:

1.


2.

3.
 

4.



Continue:

If we were to continue the velocity graphs in situation 2 and 3, it would cross the x-axis and go into the opposite (+ or -) quadrant.

2. This means situation 2 would slow down toward the reference point and then speed up away from it.


3. This means situation 3 would slow down away from the reference point and then speed up toward it.


More:

  • To find distance... CHANGE: change in velocity


Area of box ( # acceleration multiplied by # time) length times width on acceleration graph


  • To find displacement... (change in position)      *The area of each graph=the change in y variable of the graph before (example: area of acceleration graph= the change in velocity (y variable of the graph before)


Area of triangle ( # velocity multiplied by # time) length times width divided by 2 on velocity graph

All in All:

After using the motion sensors and actually getting to see when the object was doing, I was able to understand why the graphs looked the way they did, which helped me a lot and made the learning experience easier.

Before, I used to think that situation 2 was slowing down and going forward because V= - and A= +. However, it was actually going backward. After seeing my teacher demonstrate the situation, I can see that it was not going forward, but in fact backward.

A question that I have is what if acceleration accelerated? What would that look like on a graph?
My answer= Since acceleration is in the shape of a parabola (x^2), acceleration accelerated might be a quartic graph (x^4)   CHANGE: acceleration accelerated= jerk graph (The jerk graphs I have seen are a horizontal line. If acceleration accelerated, I think it would be a horizontal line above/below x-axis)

I think the graphs evolve in this pattern:




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