15+ Change In Acceleration Examples: And Problem Examples

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The change in acceleration can be seen in nature. During the motion, the object’s acceleration keeps on changing with time due to a change in direction or by varying the force applied.

Here is an exhaustive list of change in acceleration examples.

A detailed explanation of the change in acceleration examples

Newton’s second law of motion directly influences the change in acceleration. Thus the change in the force causes the acceleration to be changed.

Since acceleration exerted on the moving body is due to a change in the velocity, a like-wise change in acceleration is often referred to as jerk, which exerts a pushing-like force on the object. In this section, such change in acceleration examples is explained in detail.

A ride on a roller coaster

The pathway of the roller coaster is not linear. They have a track, turn, hill, and loop-like structure, so it is impossible to ride on the roller coaster with constant acceleration.

The coaster’s acceleration keeps on changing as soon as it leaves one type of pathway and enters the other type. So that the passengers sitting on the roller coaster experience different acceleration. So riding on a roller coaster is one of the tremendous change in acceleration examples.

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Roller coaster
Image credits: Wikimedia commons

Ride on subway

Riding the vehicles in the subway often involved changing their acceleration. The acceleration of your vehicle entering the subway and leaving the subway is different. This implies that the acceleration of your vehicle has changed in the subway.

Accelerating the car

To speed up the car, we often push the car’s accelerator. When the accelerator is pushed down, the speed of the car increases, and thus acceleration also changes subsequently.

Applying brake to your vehicle

Brakes are applied to retard the motion of the car. When the sudden brake is applied, the passenger inside the car feels some force that presses him to the seat, which is called a jerk generated due to an abrupt change in the vehicle’s acceleration.

Turning a car

Turning a car by tracing a circular path involves a change in the car’s acceleration. It is very hard to turn the car with the same acceleration, so for efficient turning, the acceleration needs to be changed. The acceleration of the car decreases in turn.

Take off and landing of an airplane.

Before taking off and after landing, the airplane moves at a constant speed for some distance. There will be a smooth change in the acceleration when it is about to take off and land so that the passenger does not feel any jerk.

Plane Aircraft Take-Off - Free photo on Pixabay change in acceleration examples
Airplane take off
Image credits: Pixabay

Batsman hitting a ball.

A bowler throws a ball that is moving towards the batsman at a certain speed; when the bat hits it, the ball’s acceleration changes instantly.

The instantaneous change in the ball’s acceleration is due to the force exerted by the batsman transferred to the ball through the bat. Thus the force acting on the ball increases, which causes them to change the acceleration.

Cricket Sports Player - Free photo on Pixabay
Bat hitting the ball
Image credits: Pixabay

Elevators

The person inside an elevator, when it is suddenly stopped, experiences an abrupt jerk on him; this is due to a sudden change in the acceleration of the elevator.

Train near the station

The acceleration of the train changes near the station. The speed of the train decreases slowly. The train’s motion stops immediately after the brake application because the engines are designed so that they are meant to start, not to stop, for safety purposes.

Driving the car up

To drive a car up, the acceleration needs to change continuously because while driving up, the force of gravity influences the car to move down so that the clutch is pressed continuously to drive in up.

Turning off a fan

Even though the rotator motion moves with constant speed, there will be centripetal acceleration acting on them to accelerate them towards the center of their path. So that when the rotating fan is turned off, the acceleration of the blades of the fan changes continuously in decreasing manner till its motion stops.

Ride on merry-go-round

Merry-go-round does not accelerate in general, but the passenger experiences the acceleration because of the centripetal force exerted on the rotating body. When the ride begins, the speed of the merry-go-round increases linearly, causing a change in the acceleration.

Obstacle race

The obstacle race is a very convenient way to explain the change in the acceleration examples because one has to surpass the hurdles on his way to win the race. So that while crossing the obstacles, the acceleration changes.

Friction exerted on moving object.

The friction is the main reason for to change in the acceleration of the moving body. The friction causes the object to retard its motion so that the object’s acceleration is changed.

The motion of a ball in a circular path

When a ball is rotated in a circular orbit, it changes its acceleration for every instant because the ball’s direction changes continuously on the circular path. Thus the motion of a ball rotating in a circular orbit is one of the best change in acceleration examples.

Pendulum changing its speed

The motion of the swinging pendulum is very convenient for explaining the change in acceleration because of the unique property of the pendulum.

The pendulum’s acceleration is high when the velocity is zero; as the velocity increases, the acceleration of the pendulum decreases, which indicates the change in the acceleration.

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Pendulum swinging
Image credits: Wikimedia commons

Pedaling the bicycle

Peddling the bicycle can be one excellent way to explain the change in acceleration examples because the acceleration of the bicycle depends on the peddling.

If the force exerted on the peddling is low, the speed is less, but if the peddling rate increases, the speed increases, which shows the change in acceleration.

Time shoes, Time cleats, Time pedals, Time bicycle. It's a… | Flickr
Pedaling the bicycle
Image credits: Flickr

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