Simulation · Physics · Class 11

Negative acceleration, faster car?

From the lesson Acceleration in Motion in a Straight Line. Change the values and watch what happens.

The idea behind it

NCERT § "Acceleration"

Dividing the change in velocity by the time interval gives the average acceleration; the instantaneous acceleration is a = dv/dt = d²x/dt².
Acceleration is the slope of the velocity-time (v-t) graph at a given instant; SI unit m s⁻².
The sign of acceleration is fixed by the chosen positive direction. A body speeds up when v and a have the same sign and slows down when they have opposite signs.
A body can have zero velocity and non-zero acceleration at the same instant, for example at the highest point of a vertical throw.
With uniform (constant) acceleration, plotting v against t gives a straight line; for uniform motion (a = 0) that line runs parallel to the time axis.
The x-t graph curves upward when a > 0 and downward when a < 0; for a = 0 it is a straight line.
The area under the v-t graph over an interval equals the displacement in that interval, with area below the time axis counted as negative.

3 more