Accelerated motion.

Objects moving with constant velocity are not very common.

When you put your foot down on the accelerator, the speedometer
of your car will show the changing velocity of the car.
When the velocity of a moving object
changes, it has an acceleration.
Acceleration is a measure of the rate
at which velocity changes.

change in velocity
Acceleration
time
If vi is the initial velocity and vf the velocity
after a time of t s, the change in velocity is:
If a is the acceleration of the object:

vf vi

v f vi
t

If vi is the initial velocity and vf the velocity

after a time of t s, the change in velocity is:

vf vi

If a is the acceleration of the object:

v f vi
t

What is the unit for measuring acceleration?

Since change in velocity is measured in m/s, rate of
change of velocity is measured in m/s/s = m/s 2.
v = a t
y=mx
What will be the shape of the
graph of velocity versus time?

I measured the velocity of a trolley in intervals of 1 s.

t (s)

v (m/s)

10

20

30

40

50

Draw a graph of velocity versus time and measure its slope.

v = 40 20
= 20 m/s
t = 4 2 = 2 s

The graph is a straight

line and its slope is the
constant acceleration.

Acceleration is a measure of the slope of this graph.

v 20 m/s

10 m/s 2
t
2s

Lab 3: Measuring Acceleration

If a car has an acceleration a, and if it starts from rest
and covers a distance x in a time interval t, then the
acceleration of the car can be calculated as:

v2
a
2x
We will allow a car to run from rest a distance x and
measure its velocity at the end of distance x.
Watch the experimental set up and how I calculate the
velocity of the car after it has traveled a distance of x m.
Write down the values of t for the next 4 trials and
calculate the velocity each time using the formula:

0.015 m
t

Use your calculated values to

complete the following table.
Trial x (m)

t (s)

0.015
v2
m/s
a
m/s 2
t

2x

1
2
3
4
5

Calculate the acceleration for each trial.

Calculate the average acceleration.

The graph of position against time of a car

moving with uniform velocity is a straight line.
If a car is accelerating, what will the graph
of position against time look like?
Study the animation given below. Which of the
cars are accelerating?

Pick the graph of position against time for each car. Include
the answer to this in the lab 3 worksheet.

Look at the motion of a car in the positive

x-direction with a constant velocity.

Its graph of position versus time is a straight line with

its slope giving the constant velocity of about 12 m/s
Since the velocity is a constant, its
graph is a horizontal line.

Let us now look at a car that is accelerating to the right.

Its graph of position versus time curves up

showing that each second the position is
changing more than the previous second.

Force is the Cause of Motion

The behavior of all objects can be described by saying
that objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing"
If at rest, they will continue in this same state of rest.
Objects in motion will like to continue moving at a constant rate.
Newton described this in the following statement.
An object at rest tends to stay at rest and
an object in motion tends to stay in motion
with the same speed and in the same
direction unless acted upon by an
unbalanced force.
This statement is called the
first law of motion.

Inertia
The tendency of an object o keep
doing what it is doing called inertia.

Watch the animation and explain what happens.

All objects resist changes in their state of motion.
In the absence of an unbalanced force, an object
in motion will maintain this state of motion.
This is often called the law of inertia.

Inertia
The tendency of an object o keep
doing what it is doing called inertia.

Watch the animation and explain what happens.

All objects resist changes in their state of motion.
In the absence of an unbalanced force, an object
in motion will maintain this state of motion.
This is often called the law of inertia.

Newtons Second Law of Motion

An unbalanced force is responsible for producing acceleration.

While the forces on the person are

balanced, there are unbalanced
forces on the car.
An unbalanced force
produces acceleration.
The acceleration is proportional to the
unbalanced force and is in the
direction of the unbalanced force.
This is the statement of Newtons second law.

If Fnet is the unbalanced

force on the physics
book and m is its mass
Newton second law
written as a equation is:
Fnet = ma
A greater net force produces a
greater acceleration.
Mass is measured in kg and
acceleration is measured in m/s2
Force is measured in kg m/s2
and this is called a newton (N)

What is the net force on a 1000 kg car

that accelerates at 5 m/s2?
Fnet = ma
= 1000 kg 5 m/s2
= 5000 N

Complete the following table using F = ma

Net Force (N)

Mass (kg)

1.

10

2.

20

3.

20

4.
5.

Acceleration (m/s2)

2
10

Complete this table and upload it along with lab 4

5
10

Lab 4: Testing the second law of motion

I applied different forces on a trolley and measured its
acceleration each time as shown in the table below.
Trial

Force (N)

Acceleration (m/s2)

10

4.8

20

9.9

30

15

4.

40

20.8

50

24.7

Draw a graph of force on the y-axis and

acceleration on the x-axis and measure its slope.
What does the slope of the graph represent?
Complete the worksheet for
this lab and upload it.