Velocity and Acceleration Investigation

Here is an example of a deeper investigation that can be created to help students gain a deeper understanding of velocity and acceleration.

Observe the following simulation of a mustang overtaking a bus. Select which of the following options is occurring in the simulation above it and defend your answer. More than one answer might be correct.



1. The vehicles have the same x position.
2. The vehicles have the same velocity.
3. The bus’s velocity is greater than the mustang’s.



1. The mustang and the bus are moving at constant velocity.
2. The mustang is decelerating, but the bus is accelerating.
3. The bus is decelerating while the mustang is accelerating.



1. The mustang’s velocity is greater than that of the bus.
2. The mustang is accelerating while the bus is moving at a constant velocity.
3. The mustang and the bus are both accelerating.
4. The mustang is decelerating while the bus is accelerating.
5. The bus’s acceleration is greater than the mustang’s.
6. The bus and the mustang have equal acceleration.

Textbook simulations

What if all the diagrams in science and engineering books came alive and became interactive?

This blog is dedicated to realizing that vision. Here is a post that shows an example. We are building simulations aligned to science and engineering textbooks. Textbooks are full of wonderful problems. These problems introduce everyone to mathematical modeling and science concepts. So why not make them come alive using SimInsights simulation software? What could be a better way to start learning with simulations?


We are building a section of our website where textbook simulations will be organized. Here is a screenshot of the webpage showing our initial set of textbooks:

Click on the image above to checkout the webpage. Then click on a book thumbnail to access all the simulations for its exercise problems. Currently, there are only a handful of simulations available. In the next few weeks, you will see more and more simulations appear until most of the relevant problems are covered.

So you are wondering how you can participate? There are many ways. You can play with the simulations, leave us comments or even sign up and build some simulations for your favorite problems. You can even suggest new books for us to cover.

On this blog, you will see posts that describe various textbooks, chapters and problems that we will tackle using simulations. We hope that by making the problems come alive, our simulations will engage learners in a unique way not possible with other supplements. SimInsights team is looking forward to your comments.