Velocity Calculator

What is a Velocity Calculator?

The velocity calculator can be used to calculate how fast an object is moving, but it can also be used for a variety of other purposes. Using this tool, we can see both the speed and how it changes over time, for instance when something starts out slowly and then picks up speed.

A calculator will help us determine what speed something is moving at the end (known as the final velocity) or at the beginning (known as the initial velocity), along with how long it took to reach it.

How to Use a Velocity Calculator

The formula we use for velocity calculators looks like this:

v = u + at

To understand each part, let's break it down. What we need to know is:

v = final velocity - At the end, this represents how fast the object is moving. The car accelerates slowly at first, then speeds up. A car's final velocity is its speed when it reaches its destination.

u = initial velocity - It shows how fast the object was moving when it started. For example, the car might move slowly at first. Initial velocity determines starting speed.

a = acceleration - The acceleration of an object tells us how fast it is moving. A car's acceleration tells how fast it gets each second when it starts out slowly and gains speed.

t = time - Time refers to how long an object has been moving. As a general rule, it tells us how long it has been since an object started moving.

How to Find Velocity

The velocity calculator allows us to choose which part of the formula we want to solve for. We might be interested in the final velocity of the object at the end-basically, how fast the object moves. We could find the initial velocity if we wanted to know how fast it was going at the beginning.

You can find velocity using the following formula;

How to Find Final Velocity

Our final velocity is calculated using the following formula:

v = u + at

The final velocity can be calculated as follows:

First, determine how fast the object was moving at the start (initial velocity, u).

Next, calculate how much the object speeds up (acceleration, a).

Then, calculate how long it has been moving (time, t).

The starting speed should be multiplied by the acceleration multiplied by time.

Example: A car accelerates from 10m/s to 2m/s every second (a = 2) and lasts for 5 seconds (t = 5). To find the final velocity, we can plug these values into the formula.

v = u + at

v = 10 + (2 × 5)

v = 10 + 10

v = 20 meters per second

This means that after five seconds, the car will be moving at 20 meters per second!

How to Find Initial Velocity

Using this formula, you can find the initial velocity (how fast the object was going at the start):

u = v - at

To solve this problem, you will need to know the final velocity, the acceleration, and the time.

Example: The car's final speed was 30 meters per second (v = 30), it accelerated by 3 meters per second every second (a = 3), and it took 4 seconds (t = 4). The initial velocity (u) is what we are looking for.

u = v - at

u = 30 - (3 × 4)

u = 30 - 12

u = 18 meters per second

The car was going 18 meters per second at the beginning.