If we know three of these five kinematic variables—Delta x, t, v_0, v, aΔx,t,v​0​​,v,adelta, x, comma, t, comma, v, start subscript, 0, end subscript, comma, v, comma, a—for an object under constant acceleration, we can use a kinematic formula, see below, to solve for one of the unknown variables.
The kinematic formulas are often written as the following four equations.
Starting with the slope
where
gives us our first equation:
In this equation
- a represents the objects uniform acceleration
- t represents the interval of time ( t2 - t1) over which the objects velocity changed
- vf represents the objects final velocity at the end of the time interval
- vo represents the objects initial velocity at the beginning of the time interval