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androidmathphysics

Calculating x-acceleration (east ), and y acceleration(north) of a running Vehicle

I want to calculate the acceleration of a running vehicle. Until now I am able to get the acceleration along the heading vector using below formula

a = (velocity(now)-velocity(previous))/time m/s^2

Example: a car travels 50 meters in 3 sec and in the next 3 sec the car travels 60 meters more.

v1=50/3=16.66 m/s
v2=60/3=20 m/s
    
acceleration : 
acc=(20-16.66)/6=4.66/6= -.55 m/s^2

But I need to get the acceleration along with both x and y direction.

I required the x-acceleration which is the east acceleration, as well as the y acceleration which is the north acceleration.

Thanks in Advance...

Solution

  • Use trigonometry to get the components. East/West/X would be COSINE and North/South/Y would be SINE.

    xAccel = cos(angle) * acceleration
yAccel = sin(angle) * acceleration

    Where angle is the movement direction. For example if the angle was 90 degrees pointing straight north, then cos(90 degrees) would be 0 meaning there is no X axis acceleration.