Acceleration

Acceleration, in physics, is the rate of

change of velocity of an object with
respect to time. An object's acceleration is
the net result of any and all forces acting
on the object, as described by Newton's
Second Law.[1] The SI unit for acceleration
is metre per second squared (m s2).
Accelerations are vector quantities (they
have magnitude and direction) and add
according to the parallelogram law.[2][3] As
a vector, the calculated net force is equal
to the product of the object's mass (a
scalar quantity) and its acceleration.

Acceleration

In the absence of air resistance and thus terminal

velocity, a falling ball would continue to
accelerate.
Common a
symbols

SIunit m/s2, ms2, ms2

SIdimension LT^{-2}
For example, when a car starts from a
standstill (zero relative velocity) and
travels in a straight line at increasing
speeds, it is accelerating in the direction of
travel. If the car turns, an acceleration
occurs toward the new direction. In this
example, we can call the forward
acceleration of the car a "linear
acceleration", which passengers in the car
might experience as a force pushing them
back into their seats. When changing
direction, we might call this "non-linear
acceleration", which passengers might
experience as a sideways force. If the
speed of the car decreases, this is an
acceleration in the opposite direction from
the direction of the vehicle, sometimes
called deceleration.[4] Passengers may
experience deceleration as a force lifting
them forwards. Mathematically, there is no
separate formula for deceleration: both are
changes in velocity. Each of these
accelerations (linear, non-linear,
deceleration) might be felt by passengers
until their velocity (speed and direction)
matches that of the car.

Definition and properties

Kinematic quantities of a classical particle: mass m,
position r, velocity v, acceleration a.

Average acceleration

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. At any

point on a trajectory, the magnitude of the acceleration
is given by the rate of change of velocity in both
magnitude and direction at that point. The true
acceleration at time t is found in the limit as time

interval t 0 of v/t

An object's average acceleration over a

period of time is its change in velocity
divided by the duration of the period
. Mathematically,

Instantaneous acceleration


From bottom to top:

an acceleration function a(t);
the integral of the acceleration is the velocity
function v(t);
and the integral of the velocity is the distance
function s(t).

Instantaneous acceleration, meanwhile, is

the limit of the average acceleration over
an innitesimal interval of time. In the
terms of calculus, instantaneous
acceleration is the derivative of the
velocity vector with respect to time:

(Here and elsewhere, if motion is in a

straight line, vector quantities can be
substituted by scalars in the equations.)

It can be seen that the integral of the

acceleration function a(t) is the velocity
function v(t); that is, the area under the
curve of an acceleration vs. time (a vs. t)
graph corresponds to velocity.

As acceleration is dened as the derivative
of velocity, v, with respect to time t and
velocity is dened as the derivative of
position, x, with respect to time,
acceleration can be thought of as the
second derivative of x with respect to t:

Units

Acceleration has the dimensions of

velocity (L/T) divided by time, i.e. L.T2.
The SI unit of acceleration is the metre per
second squared (m s2); or "metre per
second per second", as the velocity in
metres per second changes by the
acceleration value, every second.

Other forms

An object moving in a circular motion

such as a satellite orbiting the Earthis
accelerating due to the change of direction
of motion, although its speed may be
constant. In this case it is said to be
undergoing centripetal (directed towards
the center) acceleration.

Proper acceleration, the acceleration of a

body relative to a free-fall condition, is
measured by an instrument called an
accelerometer.

In classical mechanics, for a body with

constant mass, the (vector) acceleration
of the body's center of mass is
proportional to the net force vector (i.e.
sum of all forces) acting on it (Newton's
second law):

where F is the net force acting on the body,

m is the mass of the body, and a is the
center-of-mass acceleration. As speeds
approach the speed of light, relativistic
effects become increasingly large.
Tangential and centripetal
acceleration

An oscillating pendulum, with velocity and

acceleration marked. It experiences both tangential
and centripetal acceleration.

Components of acceleration for a curved motion. The

tangential component at is due to the change in speed
of traversal, and points along the curve in the direction
of the velocity vector (or in the opposite direction). The
normal component (also called centripetal component
for circular motion) ac is due to the change in direction
of the velocity vector and is normal to the trajectory,
pointing toward the center of curvature of the path.

The velocity of a particle moving on a

curved path as a function of time can be
written as:

with v(t) equal to the speed of travel along

the path, and


a unit vector tangent to the path pointing

in the direction of motion at the chosen
moment in time. Taking into account both
the changing speed v(t) and the changing
direction of ut, the acceleration of a
particle moving on a curved path can be
written using the chain rule of
differentiation[5] for the product of two
functions of time as:


where un is the unit (inward) normal vector

to the particle's trajectory (also called the
principal normal), and r is its
instantaneous radius of curvature based
upon the osculating circle at time t. These
components are called the tangential
acceleration and the normal or radial
acceleration (or centripetal acceleration in
circular motion, see also circular motion
and centripetal force).
Geometrical analysis of three-dimensional
space curves, which explains tangent,
(principal) normal and binormal, is
described by the FrenetSerret
formulas.[6][7]

Special cases
Uniform acceleration

Calculation of the speed difference for a uniform

acceleration.
Uniform or constant acceleration is a type
of motion in which the velocity of an
object changes by an equal amount in
every equal time period.

A frequently cited example of uniform

acceleration is that of an object in free fall
in a uniform gravitational eld. The
acceleration of a falling body in the
absence of resistances to motion is
dependent only on the gravitational eld
strength g (also called acceleration due to
gravity). By Newton's Second Law the
force, F, acting on a body is given by:

Because of the simple analytic properties
of the case of constant acceleration, there
are simple formulas relating the
displacement, initial and time-dependent
velocities, and acceleration to the time
elapsed:[8]

where

is the elapsed time,

is the initial displacement from the
origin,
 is the displacement from the
origin at time ,
is the initial velocity,
is the velocity at time , and
is the uniform rate of acceleration.

In particular, the motion can be resolved

into two orthogonal parts, one of constant
velocity and the other according to the
above equations. As Galileo showed, the
net result is parabolic motion, which
describes, e.g., the trajectory of a
projectile in a vacuum near the surface of
Earth.[9]

Circular motion


Positio Velocity Acceleration

n vector vector v, vector a, not
r, always parallel to the
always tangent to radial motion
points the path of but offset by
radially motion. the angular and
from Coriolis
the accelerations,
origin. nor tangent to
the path but
offset by the
centripetal and
radial
accelerations.

Kinematic vectors in plane polar coordinates. Notice

the setup is not restricted to 2d space, but a plane in
any higher dimension.
Uniform circular motion, that is constant
speed along a circular path, is an example
of a body experiencing acceleration
resulting in velocity of a constant
magnitude but change of direction. In this
case, because the direction of the object's
motion is constantly changing, being
tangential to the circle, the object's linear
velocity vector also changes, but its speed
does not. This acceleration is a radial
acceleration since it is always directed
toward the centre of the circle and takes
the magnitude:


where is the object's linear speed along

the circular path. Equivalently, the radial
acceleration vector ( ) may be calculated
from the object's angular velocity :

where is a vector directed from the

centre of the circle and equal in magnitude
to the radius. The negative shows that the
acceleration vector is directed towards the
centre of the circle (opposite to the
radius).
The acceleration and the net force acting
on a body in uniform circular motion are
directed toward the centre of the circle;
that is, it is centripetal. Whereas the so-
called 'centrifugal force' appearing to act
outward on the body is really a pseudo
force experienced in the frame of
reference of the body in circular motion,
due to the body's linear momentum at a
tangent to the circle.

With nonuniform circular motion, i.e., the

speed along the curved path changes, a
transverse acceleration is produced equal
to the rate of change of the angular speed
around the circle times the radius of the
circle. That is,

The transverse (or tangential) acceleration

is directed at right angles to the radius
vector and takes the sign of the angular
acceleration ( ).

Relation to relativity
Special relativity

The special theory of relativity describes

the behavior of objects traveling relative to
other objects at speeds approaching that
of light in a vacuum. Newtonian
mechanics is exactly revealed to be an
approximation to reality, valid to great
accuracy at lower speeds. As the relevant
speeds increase toward the speed of light,
acceleration no longer follows classical
equations.

As speeds approach that of light, the

acceleration produced by a given force
decreases, becoming innitesimally small
as light speed is approached; an object
with mass can approach this speed
asymptotically, but never reach it.

General relativity
Unless the state of motion of an object is
known, it is impossible to distinguish
whether an observed force is due to
gravity or to accelerationgravity and
inertial acceleration have identical effects.
Albert Einstein called this the principle of
equivalence, and said that only observers
who feel no force at allincluding the
force of gravityare justied in concluding
that they are not accelerating.[10]

Conversions
Conversions between common units of acceleration
Base value (Gal, or cm/s2) (ft/s2) (m/s2) (Standard gravity, g0)

1 Gal, or cm/s2 1 0.032 8084 0.01 0.001 019 72

1 ft/s2 30.4800 1 0.304 800 0.031 0810

1 m/s2 100 3.280 84 1 0.101 972

1 g0 980.665 32.1740 9.806 65 1

See also
Inertia
Four-vector: making the connection
between space and time explicit
Gravitational acceleration
Acceleration (differential geometry)
Orders of magnitude (acceleration)
Shock (mechanics)
Shock and vibration data logger
measuring 3-axis acceleration
Space travel using constant
acceleration
Specic force
References
1. Crew, Henry (2008). The Principles of
Mechanics. BiblioBazaar, LLC. p.43.
ISBN0-559-36871-2.
2. Bondi, Hermann (1980). Relativity and
Common Sense. Courier Dover
Publications. p.3. ISBN0-486-24021-5.
3. Lehrman, Robert L. (1998). Physics the
Easy Way. Barron's Educational Series.
p.27. ISBN0-7641-0236-2.
4. Raymond A. Serway; Chris Vuille; Jerry S.
Faughn (2008). College Physics, Volume
10 . Cengage. p.32. ISBN9780495386933.
5. Weisstein, Eric W. "Chain Rule" . Wolfram
MathWorld. Wolfram Research. Retrieved
2 August 2016.
6. Larry C. Andrews; Ronald L. Phillips
(2003). Mathematical Techniques for
Engineers and Scientists . SPIE Press.
p.164. ISBN0-8194-4506-1.
7. Ch V Ramana Murthy; NC Srinivas
(2001). Applied Mathematics . New Delhi:
S. Chand & Co. p.337. ISBN81-219-2082-5.
8. Keith Johnson (2001). Physics for you:
revised national curriculum edition for
GCSE (4th ed.). Nelson Thornes. p.135.
ISBN978-0-7487-6236-1.
9. David C. Cassidy; Gerald James Holton;
F. James Rutherford (2002). Understanding
physics . Birkhuser. p.146. ISBN978-0-
387-98756-9.
10. Brian Greene, The Fabric of the
Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of
Reality, page 67. Vintage ISBN0-375-
72720-5

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related

to Acceleration.

Acceleration Calculator Simple

acceleration unit converter
Measurespeed.com - Acceleration
Calculator Based on starting & ending
speed and time elapsed.
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