How do you find the time from acceleration and distance?

Answer 1

You can use the formula for distance covered:distance = (initial velocity) x (time) + (1/2) (acceleration) (time squared)

Solve for time. This assumes constant acceleration, by the way.

If you assume that the initial velocity is zero, then you can omit the first term on the right. This makes the equation especially easy to solve.

Answer 2

You cannot. Provided acceleration is constant, then you need to know three of

• acceleration
  
• initial velocity
  
• final velocity
  
• distance
  

to calculate time. Any three will do.

If acceleration is not constant, then you will need even more information and more complicated formulae.

Answer 3

Assuming starting from rest then distance = 1/2 acceleration x time squared; time is thus the square root of (2 x distance/acceleration).