Acceleration and Kinematics

Acceleration can be defined as a vector quantity that explains the rate at which the velocity of a body changes with time. In class this week, we learned more about acceleration and velocity in relation to time and distance, and how to use the "Equations board...not bored" to find a variable.

This weekend, my team and I went to Las Vegas to play in a tournament. As we were taking off in our plane, I remembered about acceleration. The airplane can't just take off from its starting position or initial velocity (0 m/s). It needs to gain speed to be able to take off. The average speed needed to be met to take off is usually 150-170 mph. As the plane is being driven on the long runway, it is accelerating at a constant speed to reach the minimum speed to take off.

If we were trying to find the distance that the plane needs to go to be able to take off, and we were given the acceleration, time, and initial velocity, we could! All thanks to the Equation Board...not bored. With our information, we would pick either "dat", "vat", or "vad" equation to plug in our givens and find the variable we are looking for. In this case we would use dat equation!

d = 1/2 (a)(t^2) + (Vo)(t)