Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Chapter 11.3 Notes: Acceleration
A. Acceleration
A. The rate at which __________________ changes.
* Recall - Velocity is a combination of ___________ and
_________________. The unit for velocity is meters per second.
B. Acceleration can be described as changes in speed, direction, or
both. Just like velocity!
Ex.) The acceleration of a carousel.
*The speed of the carousel is not changing however, you are
__________________. The carousel is constantly going in
circles. This is causing a continuous change in ____________.
Which is a causing a continuous change in acceleration.
Ex.) The acceleration of a roller coaster.
*The roller coaster is constantly ___________ up,
______________down, and changing ____________. This is a
constant change in velocity. Not just direction like the carousel.
Since the velocity is constantly changing, then so is the
__________________.
Ex.) A plane taking off.
*This is an example of “______________ acceleration” (a
steady change in velocity) . The plane is taking off in a straight
line, but its velocity is changing by the same amount each
second.
C. The unit for acceleration is meters per second per second or _____.
D. Acceleration can be caused by a ____________ change in speed, a
negative change in speed (_____________), or a change in direction.
E. Free fall is the movement of an object toward Earth due to
_________________.
A. Objects falling near Earth’s surface accelerate downward at
a rate of 9.8m/s^2.
B. This means that every second an object is in free fall it
accelerates at 9.8 m/s.
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Ex. 1) A rock falling of the top of the top of a cliff.
*How much time passes between each image of the falling rock?
_____________________________________________________________
*How does the distance traveled change between successive time intervals?
_____________________________________________________________
*How does the average speed change between successive time intervals?
_____________________________________________________________
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Ex. 2) A person bouncing a basketball.
*As the ball falls from the person’s hand, how does its speed
change?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
*What happens to the speed of the ball as the ball rises from
the floor to the person’s hand?
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
*At what point does the ball have zero velocity?
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
*How does the velocity of the ball change when it bounces on
the floor?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
B. Calculating Acceleration
A. You can calculate acceleration for a __________________
by dividing the change in __________ by the ____________.
B. If “__” is acceleration, ____ is the initial velocity, ____ is
the final velocity, and __ is total time then the equation for
acceleration can be written as:
acceleration = change in velocity/ total time
C. In this equation ____________ is in the numerator and
___________ is in the denominator.
D. If the velocity increases, the numerator is _____________
and thus the _________________ is also positive.
Ex. If you are coasting downhill on a bicycle then your
velocity ____________ and your acceleration is _________.
E. If the velocity _____________, then the numerator is
_______________ and the acceleration is also negative.
Ex. If you continue coasting after you reach the bottom of the
hill, your ______________decreases and your acceleration is
negative.
E. Now lets do some calculations!!! Yeah!!!
Ex.1) Recall the stone falling off of the cliff. Lets calculate
the acceleration for each time interval.
A(1) =
A(2) =
A(3) =
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Conclusion: _______________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Ex. 2) A ball rolls down a ramp, starting from rest. After 2 seconds,
its velocity is 6 meters per second. What is the acceleration of the
ball?
Ex. 2) A car traveling at 10 m/s starts to decelerate steadily. It
comes to a complete stop in 20 seconds. What is its acceleration?
Ex. 3) An airplane travels down a runway for 4.0 seconds with an
acceleration of 9.0 m/s^(2). What is its change in velocity during
this time?
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Ex. 4) A child drops a ball from a bridge. The ball strikes the water
under the bridge 2.0 seconds later. What is the velocity of the ball
when it strikes the water?
Ex. 5) A boy throws a rock straight up into the air. It reaches the
highe4st point of its flight after 2.5 seconds. How fast was the rock
going when it left the boys hand?
C. Graphs of accelerated motion
A. You can use a speed time graph to calculate acceleration.
It’s easy!!!
B. The slope of a speed time graph is acceleration!
C. The slope is the change in speed divided by the change in
time.
D. Find the acceleration in these two graphs.
Name: _________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ______
Ex. 6)
Ex. 7)