Resumen de Acceleration in the City
William Kunkel, Douglas F. Stickle, Kimberly A. Riedl
The concept of acceleration can be challenging for students to understand when learning about the physics of translational motion.1,2 For instance, in acceleration vs. time graphs, a decrease in positive acceleration can easily be misinterpreted as a decrease in velocity, rather than as a slower rate of increase in velocity. For use as a resource bank for teaching about acceleration in introductory physics, we obtained acceleration vs. time data for various forms of transportation encountered in the city of Philadelphia. Data were obtained using a mountable USB-device accelerometer and were compiled by the authors. The collection included data for transportation by subway, trolley, bus, automobile, train, airplane, and bicycle. Using these plots, students have the opportunity to develop skill in interpreting acceleration vs. time data, and to learn about the scale and variation of translational acceleration that is operative in everyday experience. The full data collection (28 figures) is presented in an Appendix.3 Data for each figure are available as an online resource.
