#$&*
course Phy 231
2/10 10pm
The green vector represents velocity, and the blue vector represents acceleration. The acceleration vector and velocity vector are both longest at the beginning of each new slide of the mouse. They have the same positive direction at that time. Then, as my finger on the mouse slows, the velocity vector continues in the positive direction but the acceleration vector moves to the negative direction.
Moving the dot as quickly as possible from left to right gives a sharp positive velocity and acceleration, both of which quickly drop, and acceleration goes quite far into the negative direction. This repeats about two more times until reaching the other side.
Moving in an arc, acceleration wobbles around a bit, but when I'm moving with the smoothest motion in a concave downward path, velocity is pointing generally to the corner, and acceleration forms an angle of about 30 degrees (in the clockwise direction) from the velocity vector.
Again, trying to form a smooth circular path is a bit bouncy (I wonder if this is more of an issue with a touchpad than a handheld mouse?). But, when it is smoothest, acceleration points just about perpendicular to velocity, in towards the center of the circle.
Doubling velocity along a circular path seems to increase the acceleration, but definitely not double it. "
@&
Good. Those observations are very close to what we expect.
*@