Question

What are the different types of acceleration ?

Answer 1

Hint: By knowing the definition of acceleration, it will be easier for us to classify the different types of acceleration. Acceleration is a vector quantity and is defined as the rate of change of velocity per unit of time.

Complete answer:
After understanding the definition of acceleration, if we think closely, a very interesting fact can click in our mind that acceleration can sometimes be changing with time and sometimes it must be constant plus there must also be a possibility to calculate the acceleration of an object at a particular instant.

As we discussed earlier, acceleration can sometimes be changing with time. This type of acceleration is known as non-uniform acceleration. As the name suggests, non-uniform acceleration is the type of acceleration where the object is travelling with a variable increase in velocity per time interval. An example of such non-uniform acceleration is a vehicle starting or leaving from a spot.

Another type of acceleration is the one that is constant. The type of Acceleration that is observed when an object is travelling with a constant increase in velocity at equal intervals of time in a straight line is termed Uniform acceleration. Freefall is an example of uniform acceleration

The third type of acceleration is instantaneous acceleration and is defined as the acceleration of an object at a particular instant of time.The average acceleration over a period of time is defined as the total change in velocity in the given interval divided by the total time taken for the change.

Note:Some people might consider a situation where the velocity is decreasing in the first step. But that is a case of deceleration.If there is no change in velocity for some particular time period then the acceleration remains constant.