Calculate the acceleration of an object, also known as the rate of change of velocity. Enter the initial velocity, final velocity, and time to calculate acceleration.

## Acceleration Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the acceleration of an object.

Acceleration = (Final Velocity – Initial Velocity) / Time

In Si units, acceleration is displayed as meters per second square (m/s^2), velocity is measure in meters per second (m/s), and time is measured in seconds (s).

The calculator above is unitless. This allows you to choose the units as it’s needed or displayed in your problem. Just be careful that the final units you write as your answer match those of your input. For example, if you input meters per second for velocity and s for time, the units should be m/s^2.

## How to Calculate Acceleration

We will now take a look at how to calculate the acceleration of an object. Let’s assume we are given an initial velocity, initial position, final position, and time.

First, we need to layout our plan of attack for solving this problem. To calculate acceleration, we need both the initial velocity and final velocity.

To do this, we will calculate the average velocity through the change in position. Then, once we have the average velocity, we will use that and the initial velocity to calculate the final velocity.

Afterward, we have all the information we need and we can calculate the acceleration from the velocities and change in time.

Example Problem #1:

For this example, the values for the initial and final velocity, as well as the time must be known.

First, the initial velocity is measured as 11 m/s.

Next, a stopwatch is started and stopped over the period of time the object is accelerated. It reads 10 seconds.

Next, the final velocity is measured to be 31 m/s.

Finally, the acceleration is calculated using the formula above:

Acceleration = (Final Velocity – Initial Velocity) / Time

Acceleration = 31-11 / 10

Acceleration = 2 m/s^2

## What is an acceleration?

Acceleration is also known as the rate of change of velocity, or in other words, the derivative of velocity with respect to time.