Question

How do you find the acceleration of a time t from a velocity and time graph?

Answer 1

If you have a graph that shows Velocity Vs Time then you can calculate acceleration by calculating the area under the curve.

Answer 2

So when it asks for the acceleration of t = 7.5, I just calculate the area between t = 7 and t = 8?

Answer 3

If you look at the picture I sent you then you will notice that the area under the curve of the graph Velocity Vs Time was in the form of a triangle...then, what I did I calculated the area of the triangle and that was my acceleration.....recall that acceleration units are meters/second^2

Answer 4

Did it make sense?

Answer 5

Yes, yes it did. Thank you! However, I don't know how to find the area of a shape like this:

Answer 6

on that shape you essentially have a square and a triangle together. This mean that the area of the Square+the area of the Triangle = Total area which equals Acceleration....

Answer 7

Sorry, you have the area of a rectangle and a triangle...I said a square but it is actually a rectangle....

Answer 8

Okay, thanks! If the velocity goes up by 0.1, so the height will be 0.1 instead of 1, right?

Answer 9

Correct....take the measurements of the figures (triangle or rectangle) literally. Example: If one side of the rectangle goes from 0 to 5 for example, then, you can deduct that one side of your rectangle is 5. Also say that the other side on the time axis goes from 0 to 2..then you can deduct that the other side of your rectangle is 2....then, plug this info into the area formula for the rectangle an done. You just calculated the area of the rectangle...

Answer 10

Ah, I get it now. Thank you very much!

Answer 11

cool...no problem......good luck...keep up the good work....Math Rules...