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lencho19 lencho19
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11 years ago
Can someone please tell me the difference between a position vs time and velocity vs time graph? The way is see it is that position is where you are in a certain amount of time, so if you accelerate at 5m/s/s, then at 1 second your at 5, 2 seconds is 10, and 3 is 15. So if velocity is speed in a direction, wouldn't the graph still be the same at the position vs time graph? PLEASE HELP!
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wrote...
11 years ago
Don't confuse acceleration, the change in velocity per unit time, with velocity, change in position per unit time.

Examples:
A car parked in the driveway:
- has a velocity of 0. It isn't accelerating. V(t) = 0.
- It also isn't moving. D(t) = 0.

Same car traveling on a straight road at a steady 100 km/h:
- has a velocity of 100 km/h. V(t) = 100.
- is changing position. D(t) = 100t.  Note: t is hours, D is kilometers.
- it isn't accelerating. a = 0.

Same car accelerating very slowly out of the driveway and down the road at a constant acceleration of 5 km/h^2.
- The velocity starts at 0, but increases at a constant rate. V(t) = 5t.
- During the first hour, the velocity of the car at any point in time is somewhere between 0 and 5. Every minute the car accelerates, it goes a little faster. Therefore, each minute, the car covers slightly more distance than it did during the previous minute.

Because the acceleration is constant we can compute the car's average velocity between time t1 and time t2. It is
  (V(t1) + V(t2)) / 2
The distance the car covers from time t1 to t2 is the average velocity times the elapsed time. So
  D(t1, t2) = [ (V(t1) + V(t2)) / 2 ] * (t2 - t1)
For simplicity, let t1 be 0.
  D(0, t2) = [ (V(0) + V(t2)) / 2 ] * (t2 - 0)
Simplify:
  D(t2) = [ (V(0) + V(t2)) / 2 ] * (t2)
Above, we said V(t) = 5t. Substituting
  D(t2) = [ (5*0 + 5 * t2) / 2 ] * (t2)
Simplify:
D(t2) = [ 2.5 * t2 ] * (t2)
D(t2) = 2.5 * t2 ^ 2 { a parabola }
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