How to Calculate a Change in Velocity

Calculating change in velocity helps to find the acceleration.

Velocity measures how much an object's speed changes over a given time. This method of finding the change in velocity also applies to finding the rates of other factors such as change in time or change in distance. Use the change in velocity to find the object's acceleration which divides the time by the change in velocity.

Instructions

1. Subtract the beginning velocity from the ending velocity to find the change in velocity.

2. Find the change in velocity using the acceleration by multiplying the acceleration by the time period to determine the change in velocity.

3. Practice finding the change in velocity. For instance, a car moves at 5 m/s at the start and accelerates to 10 m/s after 10 seconds. Subtract the initial velocity (5 m/s) from the final velocity (15 m/s) to find 10 m/s for the change in velocity.

4. Try a problem to find the change in velocity using acceleration and time. For instance, a car that takes 10 seconds to accelerate to 1 m/s2 would have a change in velocity of 1 m/s2 x 10 s = 10 m/s for the change in velocity.

References

• Physics Classroom: Acceleration
• "Eshbach's handbook of engineering fundamentals"; Ovid Wallace Eshbach, Byron D. Tapley, Thurman R. Poston; 1990