accelerometer
Sign in to savethumb|A typical accelerometer
Article
22 sectionsContents
- Physical principles
- Structure
- Applications
- Engineering
- Biology
- Industry
- Building and structural monitoring
- Medical applications
- Navigation
- Transport
- Volcanology
- Consumer electronics
- Motion input
- Sound recording
- Orientation sensing
- Image stabilization
- Device integrity
- Gravimetry
- Types of accelerometer
- Exploits and privacy concerns
- See also
- References
thumb|A typical accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (that is, relative to an inertial frame of reference). Proper acceleration is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acceleration with respect to a given coordinate system, which may or may not be accelerating. For example, an accelerometer at rest on the surface of the Earth will measure an acceleration due to Earth's gravity straight upwards of about g ≈ 9.81 m/s2. By contrast, an accelerometer that is in free fall will measure zero acceleration.