Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Comparing Constant Velocity to Constant Acceleration


Recently my class and I have been taking part in a lab which purpose is to help us understanding the differences between constant velocity and constant acceleration. The lab did this by closely showing how they measure different things and have different equations. This lab actually helped me understand the difference between the two. Constant velocity I now know is something that doesn't change in speed or direction, and constant acceleration is the change is of velocity. In this lab my partners pushed a ball on a flat surface and recorded its distance every half second, which we then graphed using the data we found using excel, which then gave us the equations of the line. Then we raised two legs on the same side of the table to make it a ramp and proceeded with the same steps as before. This helped us see that constant velocity and acceleration are similar but at the same time different because acceleration is gaining speed while velocity keeps a constant speed unless a change in direction occurs. The equation we used in the lab for velocity v= d/t, and for finding acceleration we used: how far- d= 1/2 at^2, how fast- v=at. When graphing the data found from measuring acceleration and velocity we realized that  constant velocity always had a straight trend line because velocity doesn't measure speed and that the acceleration lines curved because that shows the change in speed. This lab taught me or rather helped me better realize the difference between acceleration and that a lot of math which I have used before can be used in the equations of line such as y=mx+b. I also learned that it is better to know all the equations because then you can tell which is better to use for a certain project.



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