Average Acceleration?

Average acceleration vs instantaneous acceleration?

• Hey i am confused. So i know how to get average acceleration (delta v / delta t) and i know that instantaneous acceleration is the limit as t->0 but wouldn't that be infinity? i know that if you take the derivative of position you get velocity and the derivative of that is acceleration. But what if you are not given position or velocity. For example a car goes from 0 to 60m/s in 6 sec. the average acceleration is 10 m/s^2 but how do you find out what the instantaneous acceleration is? is it just 10 m/s^2 ? would it be 10*t m/s^2? thank you!

• Answer:

  first...no dat wont b infinty...limit is applied as t tends to zero cz the time for intantaneous acc is xtremely short(so d name instantaneous)...t tends to zero,,..bt its nt zero...inst acc is dv/dt...u vl learn limits in ur higher classes... Second...no,..the inst acc in d eg u gave is not 10...if dey ask d inst acc dey got to give suffiecien data... For eg...if velocity of a particle at any time is t square... Den if dey ask d inst acc at say 5th sec (cz its instantaneous)...first u gotta differentiate t square...u gget 2t,...now substitute t=6...u get inst acc =12m/s sq... So sufficient dat vl b given n ques vl b asked lik dis..if want the inst acc