2.3.
Acceleration
Acceleration is any change in velocity for an object divided by the time interval over which the change occurs. This means a change in MAGNITUDE and/or DIRECTION. We define the average acceleration of an object as
 | (2.4) |  |
Example 4
A car traveling at 10 m/s in a straight line speeds up to 30 m/s in 5.0 s. What is the average acceleration?
We have assumed that the direction in which the car moves is the + direction, and the + sign in the above result indicates the acceleration is in this same direction.
The instantaneous acceleration can be defined by analogy with the instantaneous velocity:
 | (2.5) | |
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