Topic: area under the speed-time

graphs
Wednesday, September 16th, 2020
 Lesson objective

 Calculate the area under a speed–time

graph to determine the distance travelled
for motion with uniform speed or uniform
acceleration.
 Area under the speed- time graphs
 An additional feature of speed-time graph is that one can
easily find the distance travelled by calculating the area under
the speed-time graph.
 If an object moves with different speeds, the distance
travelled can be found by dividing the area under the graphs
with suitable sections like triangles and rectangles and then
summing up the results.
 Helpful formulas
1) Area of rectangle = length x width
2) Area of triangle = ½ x base x height
3) Area of trapezium = ½ x height x sum of parallel sides
• The area under the speed-time graph represents the distance
travelled by the object.
• The area under the velocity-time graph represents the displacement
travelled by an object.
Example question
Example question