It’s often useful to express the acceleration vector \(\vec{a}\) of an object in terms of its \(x\) and \(y\) components. Use the symbols \(v_{1x}\) and \(v_{1y}\) for the velocity components of the object at time \(t_1\), and the symbols \(v_{2x}\) and \(v_{2y}\) for the velocity components at time \(t_2\). Then \(a_x\), the \(x\) component of \(\vec{a}\), equals the \(x\) component of velocity change (\(\Delta{v_x} = v_{x2} - v_{x1}\) divided by the time interval \(\Delta{t} = t_2 - t_1\), and the \(y\) component of \(vec{a}\) equals the \(y\) component of velocity change (\(\Delta{v_y} = v_{y2} - v_{y1}\)) divided by \(\Delta{t}\).