Question

What are the different types of acceleration?

Answer 1

Definition of acceleration

The rate of change of velocity which is an example of a vector quantity is called acceleration. It is a vector quantity as it has both magnitude and direction. The S.I unit of acceleration is $\mathrm{m}/{\mathrm{s}}^2$.

Formula

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{acceleration}=\frac{\mathrm{final}\mathrm{velocity}-\mathrm{initial}\mathrm{velocity}}{\mathrm{time}} \\ \mathrm{acceleration}=\frac{\mathrm{Change}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{velocity}}{\mathrm{time}} \\ \mathrm{a}=\frac{{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{f}}-{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{i}}}{\mathrm{t}} \\ \mathrm{a}=\frac{∆\mathrm{v}}{\mathrm{t}} \end{gathered}$$

Here,

$\mathrm{a}$ is the acceleration.

${\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{f}}$ is the final velocity.

${\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{i}}$ is the initial velocity.

$\mathrm{t}$ is the time interval.

$\mathrm{\Delta v}$ is the small change in the velocity.

Different types of acceleration

There are three types of acceleration, such as:

1. Uniform acceleration: When an object is traveling in a straight line with a uniform increase in velocity at equal intervals of time, then the object is said to be in uniform acceleration. The free-falling of an object is an example of uniform acceleration.
2. Non-uniform acceleration: When an object is traveling with a uniform increase in velocity but not at equal intervals of time is known as non-uniform acceleration. Bus moving or leaving from the bus stop is an example of non-uniform acceleration.
3. Instantaneous acceleration: The acceleration of an object at any instant of time is known as instantaneous acceleration.