Physlet Illustration: Changing Acceleration

 

 

 

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The blue ball moves with a changing acceleration across the floor, as viewed from above. The distance grid is in cm, and the times are shown in seconds. Can you determine the rate of change of the acceleration of the ball?

Hints

  1. Find the slope of the distance versus time graph.  
  2. How does this slope compare with the velocity?  Note that it is continually increasing.
  3. Find the slope of the velocity versus time graph at a couple of times2. Is it Constant? 
  4. What is the acceleration of the ball at t = 2.5 seconds?

Reference

See Walker, Section 2-4

Illustration written by Chuck Niederriter