How To Find Average Acceleration From Velocity Time Graph

Distance, speed and acceleration

The movement of an object can be predicted by analysing the forces that human activity on the object. Balanced forces have no effect, while unbalanced forces can atomic number 82 to alter in acceleration.

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Completing calculations on curves

You will need to be able to explain and complete calculations on curves in both distance-time and velocity-fourth dimension graphs. This instance uses a velocity-time graph.

A velocity-time graph. The line is split into 4 parts showing different rates of velocity and acceleration.

Look at the graph and explain the motion of the vehicle betwixt 60 and 120 seconds.

Look at the vertical \(\text{y}\) -axis. You need to check what blazon of graph it is before you start answering.
Between 60 and 85 seconds the graph is curving upwardly. This means that the velocity is increasing at an increasing rate. In other words the vehicle is accelerating non-uniformly.
The graph is rising in a reasonably straight line between 85 and 95 seconds. This represents uniform or constant acceleration.
In between 95 and 120 seconds the graph is curving to go a horizontal line. This means that the dispatch is becoming less, ie the velocity is increasing at a reducing rate.

If you're sitting the higher tier exam, you might be asked to work out the average acceleration or the altitude travelled over the curved region. To calculate the average acceleration, draw a straight line (shown in dark-green) and find the gradient.