Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. At any point on a trajectory, the magnitude of the acceleration is given by the rate of change of velocity in both magnitude and direction at that point.
A set of equations describing the trajectories of objects subject to a constant gravitational force under normal Earth-bound conditions.Assuming constant acceleration g due to Earth's gravity, Newton's law of universal gravitation simplifies to F = mg, where F is the force exerted on a mass m by the Earth's gravitational field of strength g.
The gravitational acceleration vector depends only on how massive the field source is and on the distance 'r' to the sample mass . It does not depend on the magnitude of the small sample mass. This model represents the "far-field" gravitational acceleration associated with a massive body.
The g-force acting on an object under acceleration can be much greater than 1 g, for example, the dragster pictured at top right can exert a horizontal g-force of 5.3 when accelerating. The g-force acting on an object under acceleration may be downwards, for example when cresting a sharp hill on a roller coaster.
There are two main descriptions of motion: dynamics and kinematics.Dynamics is general, since the momenta, forces and energy of the particles are taken into account. In this instance, sometimes the term dynamics refers to the differential equations that the system satisfies (e.g., Newton's second law or Euler–Lagrange equations), and sometimes to the solutions to those equations.
Consequently, the acceleration is the second derivative of position, [7] often written . Position, when thought of as a displacement from an origin point, is a vector: a quantity with both magnitude and direction. [9]: 1 Velocity and acceleration are vector quantities as well. The mathematical tools of vector algebra provide the means to ...
This formulation is dependent on the objects causing the field. The field has units of acceleration; in SI, this is m/s 2. Gravitational fields are also conservative; that is, the work done by gravity from one position to another is path-independent. This has the consequence that there exists a gravitational potential field V(r) such that
An equation for the acceleration can be derived by analyzing forces. Assuming a massless, inextensible string and an ideal massless pulley, the only forces to consider are: tension force (T), and the weight of the two masses (W 1 and W 2). To find an acceleration, consider the forces affecting each individual mass.