Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Why do two formulas $d = v_0 t + \frac{at^2}{2}$ and $d=vt$ yield different results?

All of you are sure to be familiar with these two equation:

$d = v_0 t + \frac{at^2}{2}$ and $d=\overline vt$

Given the same initial and final velocities, and time and acceleration. With the second equation I need not use the acceleration. But the distance found using these equations are different!

For this who say that the second equation assume a = 0, it isn't always true. I use the formula for graphs of uniformly accelerated motion to find the distance travelled at the end of certain time. I use initial and final velocities to find the average velocity and multiply the velocity by the time in second on the graph.

Wait, I just tested another uniformly accelerated motion problem with both formulas. The result are the same! What? This is only for some specific problems.

Answer

Cancel

-