Velocity – Time Graph

Velocity – Time Graph

  1. The gradient of the velocity-time gradient gives a value of the changing rate in velocity, which is the acceleration of the object.
  2. The area below the velocity-time graph gives a value of the object’s displacement.

Analysing Velocity-Time Graph

  1. When analysing the velocity-time graph, always keep in mind that the gradient of the graph is equal to the acceleration of the graph.
  2. If the gradient is constant, then the acceleration is constant. If the gradient increase, then the acceleration increase and etc.
  3. The table below shows a few cases of velocity-time graph for different types of motion.

Uniform velocity

Uniform acceleration

Increasing acceleration

Uniform deceleration

Decreasing acceleration

Converting a Velocity-Time graph to Acceleration-Time graph

  1. In order to convert a velocity-time graph to acceleration time graph, we need to find the gradient of the velocity-time graph and plot it in the acceleration-time graph.
  2. The 5th and 6th videos below explain how to sketch an acceleration-time graph form a given velocity-time graph.