2.6 Rectilinear Motion with Constant Acceleration (cont.1)

Let us now consider rectilinear motion with constant acceleration. In the case of constant acceleration, the average acceleration equals the instantaneous acceleration, so that

a=(v2-v1)/(t2-t1), a constant.

Let t1 = 0 and let t2 be any arbitrary time t. Let v0 represent the speed or velocity when t=0, and let v be the speed at time t. We call v0 the initial speed or velocity. With these conventions, our previous equation becomes

a= (v-v0)/(t-0), or v=v0+at.

This equation states that the speed v at the time t is the sum of the speed v0 at the time zero plus the increase in speed during the time t.


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