Finding Acceleration from a Data Table
Physics
Learning how to measure acceleration from a data table.
In this video, we're going to learn how to measure acceleration from a data table. If you recall, the acceleration formula is a is equal to delta V over delta T, where a represents the acceleration, delta V represents how much the velocity changed, and delta T represents the time period. When you have to find acceleration from a data table, the problem or situation will usually tell you between which two times to find the acceleration. So what we're going to do is we're going to come down here and learn three steps to do that with.
So step number one is and we're going to be following the formula here. Step number one is going to be fined, the change in velocity. And if you remember the change in velocity is just final velocity, minus the initial velocity. Step number two is to find the time period. So find delta T and to get delta T, all you have to do is take the final time. Minus the initial time. Last step is going to be to divide the two. So remember acceleration is change in velocity over the time period. So you just have to take what you found from step one and two and divide them. All right, so let's do an example.
Say the problem says, find the acceleration between the times of one second and three seconds. So our first step is to find delta V so to get delta V or change in velocity, we have to find the final velocity and subtract the initial velocity. So this right here is our final point. This right here is our initial point. This is our initial point because it happened first in time, then this one happened. So this would be our final point. Which would make this our final velocity. And this our initial velocity. So we would take final minus initial 8.9 m/s, -4.1 m/s. We do that out. We get 4.8 meters per second. All right, step one, finished. Step two. Find the time period. So we're going to find delta T this is final time, minus initial time.
Our final time was three seconds. Our initial time was one second. So we're going to do three minus one. That equals two seconds. All right, step three. Divide. So acceleration is change in velocity over the time period. This is going to be for us. 4.8 divided by two. Our final acceleration answer is going to be 2.4. Our units were meters and seconds. So our acceleration units will be meters. Per second squared. And that is our acceleration. So just a quick recap, the acceleration formula is what we use to get the acceleration from a data table. Usually for a problem, you're going to be given the two times between which you need to find the acceleration. So your first step is to be to find the change in velocity. Second step, find the time period, third step, divide.