ArduiUno Programming - Advanced: Let's practice! (ArduiUno programming - beginner and advanced Book 2) by Eckert Steve M

Author:Eckert, Steve M. [Eckert, Steve M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

Measuring acceleration

Everyone has experienced acceleration at one point or another in their lives. It could have been when you were running downhill or even on a level ground, or when you fell from a height, it could have been when you were in a car or an airplane. Any of these ways, you have experienced acceleration. However, how is acceleration defined? It is defined as the rate by which the velocity of an object changes. This definition would imply that when an object speeds up or slows down, it is acceleration. However, the rate of slowing down of an object is differentiated by calling it negative acceleration or deceleration. Acceleration is quantified by a magnitude and a direction. The velocity of an object changes as a force is a force is applied to it. The magnitude is the intensity or strength of the force causing the acceleration, and the direction is the way to which an applied force is directing the object. Newton’s second law describes acceleration as force = mass x acceleration implying that acceleration is the force divided by mass. It is useful to know how to measure acceleration, we use an accelerometer for this. An accelerometer is an instrument that measures the force applied to a small test mass. This test mass is placed inside the mass and is held in place by one or more springs or something else. Then, gravity or other forces are applied to this small test mass and this makes it to move towards a particular direction. The device then measures the distance this mass travels from its position of rest. This would imply that the longer the distance, the stronger the applied force.

Imagine the accelerometer in free fall, the accelerometer registers no force when in free fall and thus, will report no acceleration at all. This is applied in cars for detecting collision and deploying airbags. It can also be used in gathering performance statistics in cars. Accelerometers are also used in smartphones to provide orientation information and also used for playing games that involve moving a controller device. It could also be used in a toy car to provide information that will make the cars wheels to stop spinning when it has turned over. Also, it is applied when making a toy that reacts to the movement of a controller in 3D space. Accelerators also find applications as part of inertial navigation systems (INS) which helps vehicles like ships, cars or planes maintain knowledge of their location in the absence of other positioning systems like GPS.

In this section, we will make use of the ADXL335, which is a common three axis accelerometer. Relatively inexpensive and very popular, and can be found in online stores. Again, it is also very easy to connect to the Arduino via any of the analog pins. This accelerometer reports the acceleration in the three dimensions of x, y and z and it is very robust, able to detect forces of up to 10,000g’s (where 1g is equivalent to the gravity of the earth at the surface).

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