"In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time."
The rate at which an object changes its velocity.
Distance and Displacement: Distance is the total length of the path covered during motion while displacement is the difference between the final and initial positions.
Speed and Velocity: Speed is the distance covered per unit time, while velocity is the displacement covered per unit time.
Average and Instantaneous Acceleration: Average acceleration is the change in velocity per unit time, while instantaneous acceleration is the rate of change of velocity at a given instant of time.
Scalar and Vector quantities: Scalars are physical quantities having only magnitude, while vectors are physical quantities having both magnitude and direction.
Motion with Constant Acceleration: This is a type of motion when the acceleration of a body remains constant with time.
Uniformly Accelerated Motion: This is another type of motion with constant acceleration where the velocity of a body changes uniformly with time.
Kinematic Equations: These are mathematical equations that can be used to solve kinematics problems using variables such as distance, time, velocity, and acceleration.
Free Fall: This is the motion of an object under the influence of gravity alone, with no other forces acting on it.
Projectile Motion: This is the motion of an object projected into the air and moving under gravity alone in a parabolic path.
Newton's Laws of Motion: These are fundamental laws of physics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it.
Energy and Work: Energy is the ability to do work while work is done upon an object when it is moved through a distance by an external force acting upon it.
Conservation of Energy: This is the principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.
Impulse and Momentum: Impulse is the force acting upon an object for a given period of time while momentum is the product of an object's mass and velocity.
Collisions: This is the interaction between two or more objects that come into contact with one another.
Circular Motion: This is the motion of an object traveling along the circumference of a circle.
Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces: Centripetal force is the force that causes a body to move in a circular path, while centrifugal force is the fictitious force that appears to act on an object moving in a circular path.
Simple Harmonic Motion: This is the type of motion where the acceleration of a particle is proportional to its displacement from a fixed point.
Waves: These are disturbances that propagate through a medium, transferring energy without transporting matter.
Doppler Effect: This is the change in frequency of a wave as the observer moves relative to the source of the wave.
Electromagnetic Waves: These are waves of energy that travel through space, including light waves and radio waves.
Uniform Acceleration: When the acceleration of an object is constant over time, it is known as uniform acceleration.
Variable Acceleration: When the acceleration of an object changes over time, it is known as variable acceleration.
Instantaneous acceleration: The acceleration of a particle at a particular instant in time is defined as instantaneous acceleration.
Average acceleration: This is the net change in velocity of an object divided by the time taken, during which the change occurred.
Tangential acceleration: The acceleration a particle gains due to the change in the magnitude of the velocity vector tangent to the particle's path is called tangential acceleration.
Radial acceleration: When a particle moves in a circular path, its velocity changes direction constantly, resulting in the radial acceleration.
Centripetal acceleration: When a force acts towards the center of a circular path of an object in motion, it generates a centripetal acceleration.
Negative Acceleration: Also known as Deceleration, it is the slowing down of an object's motion due to a force opposing its motion.
Positive Acceleration: Positive acceleration is when an object's speed increases over time as it moves in a particular direction.
Angular acceleration: This type of acceleration measures the rate at which the angular velocity of an object changes over time.
Retardation: Retardation is the negative acceleration produced due to friction or opposing forces.
Linear acceleration: This is the acceleration of an object moving in a straight line without changing direction.
Gravitational Acceleration: When an object falls, the acceleration it experiences due to gravity is known as gravitational acceleration.
Free Fall Acceleration: The acceleration experienced by a body falling freely under the influence of gravity is known as free fall acceleration.
Incremental Acceleration: If the acceleration of an object varies at regular intervals, the change in velocity is known as incremental acceleration.
Initial Acceleration: The acceleration of a body at the time it is set in motion is called initial acceleration.
Final Acceleration: The acceleration an object experiences just before it comes to a stop is its final acceleration.
Abnormal Acceleration: Non-uniform acceleration due to irregular factors such as turbulent air flow, irregular terrain, unstable load or inadequate power may result in abnormal acceleration.
Circular Acceleration: When an object moves in a circular path, the rate of the change of velocity is called circular acceleration.
Relative Acceleration: The rate of change of velocity of one body with respect to another is called relative acceleration.
Nonlinear Acceleration: If the rate of change of acceleration is not constant over time, it is known as nonlinear acceleration.
Planar Acceleration: When the acceleration of an object is directed in a plane, it is known as planar acceleration.
Transverse Acceleration: The acceleration perpendicular to the direction of motion of an object is known as Transverse acceleration.
Longitudinal Acceleration: The acceleration of an object in a direction parallel to its direction of motion is called Longitudinal Acceleration.
Proper Acceleration: Proper acceleration is the acceleration felt by an object due to its own interaction with the environment.
Apparent Acceleration: Apparent acceleration is the acceleration felt by an object due to the motion of the observer himself.
Einsteinian Acceleration: This type of acceleration is defined in Einstein's general theory of relativity as due to the appearance of curved space-time.
"Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction)."
"The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the orientation of the net force acting on that object."
"The magnitude of an object's acceleration, as described by Newton's Second Law, is directly proportional to the net resulting force acting onto that object."
"The magnitude of an object's acceleration is inversely proportional to the object's mass, depending on the materials out of which it is made."
"The SI unit for acceleration is metre per second squared (m⋅s−2)."
"If the vehicle turns, an acceleration occurs toward the new direction and changes its motion vector."
"The acceleration of the vehicle in its current direction of motion is called a linear (or tangential during circular motions) acceleration."
"The reaction to linear acceleration is experienced by passengers as a force pushing them back into their seats."
"When changing direction, the effecting acceleration is called radial (or centripetal during circular motions) acceleration."
"The reaction to radial acceleration is experienced by passengers as a centrifugal force."
"If the speed of the vehicle decreases, this is an acceleration in the opposite direction of the velocity vector, sometimes called deceleration or retardation."
"Passengers experience the reaction to deceleration as an inertial force pushing them forward."
"Negative accelerations are often achieved by retrorocket burning in spacecraft."
"Both acceleration and deceleration are treated the same, as they are both changes in velocity."
"Each of these accelerations (tangential, radial, deceleration) is felt by passengers until their relative (differential) velocities are neutralized in reference to the acceleration due to change in speed."
"The passengers on board experience the reaction to tangential acceleration as a force pushing them back into their seats."
"The passengers experience the reaction to centripetal acceleration as a centrifugal force."
"Passengers experience the reaction to deceleration as an inertial force pushing them forward."
"If the movement is unidimensional and the velocity is positive, negative accelerations are mathematically described as deceleration or retardation."