Calculate Acceleration in Excel

Acceleration is the measure of how quickly an object changes its velocity. It is measured in meters per second squared. This tutorial shows how to calculate acceleration in Excel.

The Formula for Calculating Acceleration

The formula for calculating acceleration is as follows:

Acceleration = (final velocity – initial velocity) / time

When we look at the formula, it is apparent that if we want to calculate acceleration in Excel, we need to know the initial velocity, final velocity, and the time over which the acceleration occurs.

How to Calculate Acceleration in Excel

Let’s consider the dataset below showing the initial velocity and final velocity of various freight trains. The dataset also shows the time over which the acceleration occurred.

We want to compute the acceleration of the freight trains and display the values in column E.

We use the following steps:

  1. Select cell E2 and type in the formula below:

Note: Acceleration = (final velocity – initial velocity) / time

Table

Description automatically generated
  1. Click the Enter button on the Formula bar to enter the formula.
  1. Double-click or drag down the fill handle to copy the formula down the column.

The acceleration of the freight trains is displayed in column E.

Conclusion

This tutorial showed how to calculate acceleration in Excel. We hope you found the tutorial helpful.

Tomasz Decker is an Excel specialist, skilled in data analysis and financial modeling.