When the velocity of an object changes it is said to be accelerating. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time.
Any change in the velocity of an object results in an acceleration: increasing speed (what people usually mean when they say acceleration), decreasing speed (also called deceleration or retardation), or changing direction (called centripetal acceleration). Yes, that's right, a change in the direction of motion results in an acceleration even if the moving object neither sped up nor slowed down. That's because acceleration depends on the change in velocity and velocity is a vector quantity — one with both magnitude and direction. Thus, a falling apple accelerates, a car stopping at a traffic light accelerates, and an orbiting planet accelerates. Acceleration occurs anytime an object's speed increases or decreases, or it changes direction.
Much like velocity, there are two kinds of acceleration: average and instantaneous. Average acceleration is determined over a "long" time interval. The word long in this context means finite — something with a beginning and an end. The velocity at the beginning of this interval is called the initial velocity, represented by the symbol V0 (vee nought), and the velocity at the end is called the final velocity, represented by the symbol v (vee). Average acceleration is a quantity calculated from two velocity measurements.
In contrast, instantaneous acceleration is measured over a "short" time interval. The word short in this context means infinitely small or infinitesimal — having no duration or extent whatsoever. It's a mathematical ideal that can can only be realized as a limit. The limit of a rate as the denominator approaches zero is called a derivative. Instantaneous acceleration is then the limit of average acceleration as the time interval approaches zero — or alternatively, acceleration is the derivative of velocity.
Acceleration is the derivative of velocity with time, but velocity is itself the derivative of displacement with time. The derivative is a mathematical operation that can be applied multiple times to a pair of changing quantities. Doing it once gives you a first derivative. Doing it twice (the derivative of a derivative) gives you a second derivative. That makes acceleration the first derivative of velocity with time and the second derivative of displacement with time.
Units (S.I)
Calculating acceleration involves dividing velocity by time — or in terms of units, dividing meters per second [m/s] by second [s]. Dividing distance by time twice is the same as dividing distance by the square of time. Thus the SI unit of acceleration is the meter per second squared.