Acceleration is a fundamental concept in physics that describes the rate of change of velocity with respect to time. In simpler terms, acceleration measures how quickly the velocity of an object is changing.
Mathematically, acceleration (\(a\)) is defined as the change in velocity (v) divided by the change in time (t):
where:
– a = acceleration,
– 
v = change in velocity, and
– v = change in time.
Acceleration can also be expressed as the second derivative of an object’s position with respect to time:
where:
– x = position of the object.
Acceleration can be positive, negative, or zero:
- Positive acceleration occurs when an object’s velocity is increasing over time.
- Negative acceleration, often referred to as deceleration or retardation, occurs when an object’s velocity is decreasing over time.
- Zero acceleration occurs when an object’s velocity remains constant.
Acceleration is measured in units of length per time squared (e.g., meters per second squared, feet per second squared) in the International System of Units (SI). It plays a crucial role in understanding the motion of objects and is fundamental to many areas of physics and engineering.This program will convert engineering units of acceleration from common English Units to Metric and also includes Earth’s Gravity. Common units are
- meter /second (squared)
- kilometer/ second (squared)
- Gravity of the Earth in g
- Inches/ second (squared)
- Foot/ second (squared)
- Miles/second (squared)
