Recently my A-level mechanics student has had difficulty remembering the SUVAT equations of motions. I wrote a blog entry on these a while ago. I’m now trying to think of an easy way to remember them, which a struggle! The best advice is to use them regularly, or just write them out every day.
a = (v-u)/t – is just the definition of Acceleration
s = (u + v)/2 * t is using the average speed in the old speed * time formula
The other three can be derived from these but in a hurry, better remembered
v2 = u 2 + 2as
s = ut + at2/2
s = vt – at2/2
All of these have different forms where the subject is different, but re-arranging formulas is easier than remembering 20 equations.
There are 5 variables here and five equations.. and each equation has one of the 5 variables missing. This means we can find the other variables with just 3 pieces of information. Just use the equation with the 3 parts you have and the one you are looking for.
A car travels 20m from a standing start in 10 seconds at constant acceleration. Find this acceleration and the speed after those 10 seconds
We will work out these things separately with two different equations
The acceleration we can find with the 4th equation – the one without v
10 = 100a/2
This is made easier because the standing start means u =0 and we can disregard the first element
10 = 50a so a = 0.2m/s
We now could use any of the equations to find s as we know everything else, but I do suggest we don’t use a in this calculation,, just in case we didn’t get that right first time – even though I can’;t see any mistake
So we are going to use s = (u + v)/2 * t
20 = v/2 * 10 = 5v
v = 4m/s