INTRODUCTION TO ACCELERATION
🚗
In Physics, we hear the name acceleration a lot of times. But What is acceleration?
And when there is acceleration involved, then acceleration by its definition involves the word velocity. So what is the connection between these two terms. And we all know what is speed. Surprisingly, speed is also very important to understand acceleration and velocity. Any connection? Today we are going to understand the Physics behind these three phenomena.⚡
According To Physics or Mechanics, acceleration is the rate of the change of the velocity of an object. But what is velocity here? Clearly, this definition needs to be simplified further.
Let's understand acceleration more clearly.
When a car changes its speed, it is said to be accelerating. When you are travelling in a car, you can feel if the car accelerates suddenly-you get "left behind". And I am sure you must've experienced this activity before.
The car accelerates when the driver puts a foot on the accelerator. The further the pedal is pushed down, the more the car accelerates. Acceleration is a measure of how quickly "velocity" increases.
VELOCITY
To understand acceleration, we need to understand what exactly is velocity. So, back to our original question before, what is velocity?
Well, Velocity is nothing but the distance travelled by a body per unit of time.
Confused?
Okay, a better way of understanding velocity is with this example.
Let's say a man is running in a same direction constantly with a constant speed. This phenomena is termed as speed. But when the man changes its direction say he suddenly runs westwards then its the "velocity" that's being applied by the man running.
Simply put, velocity is nothing but the speed of the object plus the "direction" of the object.
If the velocity decreases, it is a negative acceleration called "deceleration". Acceleration and deceleration happens when an unbalanced force acts on an object.
What is an unbalanced force?
Nothing but the force acting on an object which is greater than the force applied in the opposite direction. If net addition of all the forces is not zero, then the forces are termed as "unbalanced forces".
So with this we understand that acceleration happens when an unbalanced force acts on an object.
UNDERSTANDING ACCELERATION, VELOCITY AND SPEED
What is acceleration, nothing but the rate at which velocity changes, right? What is velocity, nothing but the rate of change of its position or the rate of speed with direction of an object.
So, if you are speeding up, you're accelerating. If you're slowing down, you're still accelerating or in more common words - decelerating. If you're changing your direction, you're again accelerating. Why? Because as we know, velocity is nothing but speed with its direction and the above 3 cases we saw were of the CHANGES in the speed or the direction. Now one case can be like - if you are running at a constant speed in the same direction, then do you think you are accelerating?
No, because your speed is constant and acceleration in very simple words is the CHANGE IN THE SPEED OR DIRECTION OF A BODY.
Then if acceleration is the change in the speed or direction of an object, then what is velocity? Velocity is THE SPEED WITH ITS DIRECTION.
While the speed is just, speed or the rate at which a body is moving. So I'm trying to explain you three most important things in physics - ACCELERATION, VELOCITY AND SPEED.
And to finish this thing off, let's take another example - if you're running at a constant speed but this time you are changing your direction, then are you accelerating? Yes! because now you know that acceleration is change in velocity and velocity is speed + direction. So, if you change your direction, you are accelerating!
And now I hope, you really understand acceleration, velocity and speed very clearly now. And now let's brush ourselves off with some formulas. But don't worry, I will explain you that as well.
FORMULAS
Speed
First up, speed - speed is also calculated as Distance divided by Time.
s = d/t, where 's' is speed, 'd' is distance and 't' is time.
Let's understand it. Suppose, you travelled 100 km in 5 hours by a bus, then what is the average speed of the bus? Simple - Speed is the distance covered in 1 UNIT OF TIME. So, if the distance is 100 and time is 5, then what will be the distance when the time is 1? Very simple. 100/5 or 20. So the average speed of the bus is 20km per hour. See? How easy and amazing it is to learn with examples!
Velocity
Next, Velocity - as we all know velocity is the speed and direction of a body. So what is its formula? Its "Displacement/Time"
v=d/t, where "v" is velocity, "d" is displacement (don't be confused with the "d" given in the formula for speed and velocity, they are very different, we'll see how) and "t" is time.
Displacement And Distance (Velocity)
Now, let's first understand what is displacement, then we'll understand the basic difference between displacement and distance.
See, displacement is the shortest distance between the starting and the end point of two places. Like for example - take 2 points, X and Y- what will be the shortest distance to reach Y from X? A straight line! Isn't it? Well, in real life, that straight line is known as the displacement.
I will make another blog on displacement which is a very interesting topic in physics.
But for now, knowing this might be enough for you to understand displacement. Now you might be asking, what is the difference between distance and displacement. Let's understand it with the same example that we took before. We have points X and Y. Is the straight line the only way to reach Y from X? No, there are kind off INFINITE different routes to reach point Y from point X. They can be different curved routes as well. So, in physics, distance, in short is any possible way to reach from a point to another point. It need not necessarily be a straight line but other routes possible as well. So, when does displacement and distance becomes equal? They become equal when an object moves in a straight line in the fixed direction without coming back. So, finally we know two things - displacement and distance. Now back to the formula of velocity which is → v = d/t.
So, it is the displacement in one unit of time. This formula is kind of similar to the formula for speed, but the only difference is that, as we saw earlier, displacement is different than distance and velocity is different than speed and now you know how.
Acceleration
And finally, we have reached the point where we'll know the formula or the mathematical way to calculate acceleration. So, what's the formula for Acceleration? It's simple - Velocity/Time.
As we know that acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes or the change in the speed or the direction of a body. Mind you, when your speed is constant, you are obviously not accelerating.
a=v/t, where "a" is acceleration, "v" is velocity (change in velocity) and "t" is time.
So, acceleration is the term given to the velocity per unit of time. Example - Let's say you are running at a speed of 5 meters per second. And then, suddenly you increase your speed and now you are running at a speed of 10 meters per second. In this case have you accelerated? Yes, you have by 5 meters more.
As you increased your speed in the above scenario, you are accelerating...
And you have accelerated so much in this post that you have reached the end point!
-----------------------------
SUMMARY
I hope you enjoyed the session. Let's just quickly check what new things have you learnt and map them up.
1) Introduction
2) Unbalanced Forces
3) Deeper Look Into Acceleration
4) Understanding Velocity
5) Speed
6) Displacement
7) Difference Between Displacement And Distance.
8) Formula Analysis Of Acceleration, Velocity and Speed (With Examples).
-------------------------------
So, I guess that's pretty much what you needed to learn in this session. I hope you are familiar with the terms acceleration, velocity and speed much better than before. If you did, then you may follow us. And if you have any queries or doubts or questions, post them in the comments to get their answers.
---------------------------------
Thanks for reading. For more such physics concepts, follow and comment.
Created By: Naman Dwivedi
-----------------------------------
Post a Comment