Acceleration

Question 1

What is acceleration?

Answer 1

Acceleration is a measure of a change in speed over a given unit of time. For example: 5m/s² means velocity is increasing by 5m/s each second (5m/s, 10m/s, 15m/s, etc)

Question 2

What is the acceleration formula?

Answer 2

a=(v-u)/t

Question 3

What do the different letters represent in the acceleration formula?

Answer 3

a=acceleration
v=final velocity (tip: V comes after U in the alphabet)
u=initial velocity
t=time taken

Question 4

What does it mean when acceleration is negative?

Answer 4

That means the object is decelerating (slowing down)

Question 5

Describe an experiment to measure acceleration using 2 light gates.

Answer 5

1. Attach a mask to a trolley and place at the top of the ramp.
2. Connect 2 light gates to a QED computer and set it to measure speed twice.
3. Input the size of the mask.
4. Release the trolley and time the gap between both light gates.
5. The computer will measure the instantaneous speed for both light gates and return the speed for each.
6. Use this data to calculate acceleration.

Question 6

Describe how acceleration can be measured with a single light gate.

Answer 6

1. Attach a double mask to a trolley and place at the top of the ramp.
2. Connect a light gate to a QED computer and set it to measure acceleration.
3. Input the size of one section of the mask.
4. The computer will measure the instantaneous speed for both sections of the mask and time the gap between them. It will use this to calculate acceleration.