The word "acceleration" had been used plentiful in the last few classes. I came into the class thinking that acceleration was speeding up and de-acceleration meant slowing down..well that's not the case anymore! During class the definition presented was that acceleration was the change in velocity -which includes speeding up, slowing down, or changing direction. I also found out that the word "deacceleration" isn't even a word at all! We came up with a chart to show the resulting change of velocity and acceleration. The chart is as follows:
Velocity Acceleration Resulting Change
+ + + (speeding up)
- + - (slowing down)
+ - - (slowing down)
- - + (speeding up)
This chart helps to find the movement [resulting change] of the object. Brendan also showed me in class that it is sort of like a math equation..just imagine you are multiplying the numbers. So for the first one imagine a positive 1 being multiplied by a positive 3 the result would be a positive 3. Now, if you do the same thing for the next ones but replacing it with the correct integer you will find that the resulting change is similar to the products of a multiplication problem!
Something also pointed out during class was if the arrow in the position vs. time graph was going in the negative direction-- then the velocity vs. time graph would have its drawn line in the negative quadrant of the graph (I believe it was Alex who mentioned this in class). This ties into how the slopes of the graph, in this case the position vs. time graph, affect the new graph being drawn, the velocity vs. time graph.
After discussing about how the slopes affect the others graphs and getting more practice in class and with the fiestas I can see what mistakes I'm making when I draw the various graphs. I believe I need more practice on transferring graphs into motion maps as it as been a trend on my fiestas that I have been getting them wrong.
I have been seeing that I have been getting confused with motion maps lately...
What confuses me on the motions maps include..
--How can you show the change in speed on a motion map?
--The motion map shows position over time...?
--What are the exact things you can find on a motion map by just looking at it?