Hi SelinaTCMPS,
Average velocity is the distance an object travels per unit of time. For example, if you walked 100 meters in 50 seconds your average velocity would be 100 meters/50 seconds or 2 meters/second.
Distance travelled can be expressed as the difference between a starting position and an ending position. Let’s use S1 as the name for our starting position and S2 as the name for our ending position.
So the distance travelled must be S2 – S1.
Now let’s say that we know a time that we started traveling and we’ll use T1 as the name for that time. And we’ll use T2 as the name for the time that we stopped traveling. So the amount of time that we travelled is T2 – T1.
Since average velocity is the distance travelled per unit time, the equation for velocity using our names for positions and times is
velocity (or v) = (S2 – S1)/(T2 – T1)
Please note that this is the equation from step 4 of the procedure shown at the following link.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
To complete the velocity calculations, you’ll need to measure some coronal mass positions as described in steps 1-3 of the procedure.
Average acceleration is the change in velocity per unit of time. To calculate average acceleration you’ll need two values for velocity calculated as described. We’ll call the first velocity V1 and the second V2. A starting time was used to calculate each velocity. We’ll name the first velocity’s starting time T1 and the second velocity’s stating time T2.
The equation for average acceleration using our names for velocity and times is
acceleration (or a) = (V2 – V1)/(T2 - T1)
Please note that this is the equation from step 5 of the procedure.
I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.
A. Norman