Monday, September 23, 2013

Constant Velocity vs. Constant Acceleration

The purpose of this lab was to introduce us to the ideas of having a constant velocity versus having a constant acceleration. From this lab, I learned that having a constant velocity is having a speed that does not change how fast it is or the direction that it is going. However, having a constant acceleration means the object is accelerating at a constant rate but tends to get faster depending on the slope its on.I did both of these tasks by using simply a marble and a piece of chalk. To test out constant velocity, I rolled the marble on a flat surface and at every half second, I would mark where it was using the chalk. 

This is an example of what the graph looked like from my results of marking where the marble was at every half second. To measure a constant acceleration, we did something alot similar to the first experiment, but instead of having a flat surface, we made an incline and let it roll like normal. This graph looked something like this:


The formula for constant acceleration is d=1/2 at^2 while the formula for constant velocity is V= d/t.
From this lab, I learned the difference between constant acceleration and constant velocity, I learned that whenever I see a straight lined graph it is because the object in motion has a constant velocity and whenever I see a curved line it is because the object has a constant acceleration. 

1 comment:

  1. I like how you put graphs in your post, the visual makes it easier for the viewer to compare constant velocity and constant acceleration.

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