Remember, acceleration is the same as gradient, and acceleration = velocity change ÷ time. Look at the graph. The acceleration of the vehicle in the first 10 seconds is: = (40 m/s – 0 m/s) ÷ 10 s ...

This says that the acceleration will be the slope of the velocity-time graph and the velocity will be the slope of the position-time graph. But in this case we are going backwards.

Key fact The gradient of speed-time and velocity-time graphs represent acceleration. The area under a speed-time graph represents the distance travelled.