Q6CQ - College Physics (Urone)

Question

Acceleration is the change in velocity over time. Given this information, is acceleration a vector or a scalar quantity? Explain.

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Acceleration is a vector quantity.

Step 1: Scalar and vector quantity

A quantity defined by only the help of the magnitude is called a scalar quantity. This kind of quantity does not require direction for mentioning. 

Examples of scalar quantity are mass, distance, temperature, etc.

A quantity that requires both magnitudes, as well as the direction is called a vector quantity. 

Examples of vector quantity are velocity, displacement, force, etc.

Step 2: Acceleration

Acceleration is the ratio of the change in the velocity of the object to that of the time taken to do that change as:

 $\mathrm{a}=\frac{{\mathrm{v}}_2-{\mathrm{v}}_1}{\mathrm{t}}$

Where v₁ and v₂ are the velocities at positions 1 and 2.

T is the time taken to change the velocity.

The unit of acceleration is m/s². 

The acceleration obeys all laws of vector addition, including the parallelogram and triangular laws of vector addition.

As a result of the above reasoning, we may say that acceleration is a vector quantity.